On Saturday, again at Liu’s invitation, Kim said, "China and (North) Korea are like a close family. I'm very glad to come to the Chinese Embassy. I feel as if I were visiting a relatives' house." He said 2008 is a historic year for both countries. “I am sure of your success in the upcoming Beijing Olympics, which is an honor not only for the Chinese people but also for the peoples in Asia and the world."

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (center) listens to Chinese Ambassador to Pyongyang Liu Xiaoming (far right) talk about a monument marking the Beijing Olympics, during a visit to the Chinese Embassy on Saturday./Website of the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang

Kim said Korean Central TV will air a feature program on former Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, who died in 1976, to mark his 110th birthday on March 5. Kim said Zhou and his late father Kim Il-sung enjoyed a special relationship. North Korea set up a statue of Zhou in Pyongyang in 1983.

It is believed that Kim's visit was prompted by North Korea's strategic need to strengthen its relations with China. Since its nuclear test in September 2006, North Korea had kept a distance from China, but it apparently considered it expedient to restore ties with its closest ally for the sake of aid now Seoul, Washington and Tokyo show signs of strengthening their alliance in the wake of conservative President Lee Myung-bak’s inauguration in Seoul. Other observers said that Kim visited the Chinese Embassy in a bid to strike a balance in diplomacy following a concert by the New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang.

Kim was accompanied by Kim Yang-gon, director of the United Front Department of the North's ruling Workers' Party, Kang Sok-ju, first vice-minister of foreign affairs, and Kim Kyok-sik, chief of the General Staff of the People's Army.

(englishnews@chosun.com )