A top North Korean official is visiting China, AFP reports:
A senior official of North Korea’s ruling communist party arrived in China Tuesday and may deliver a letter from leader Kim Jong-Il to President Hu Jintao, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.
The visit by Kim Yong-Il, director of the party’s international department, follows a visit by his Chinese counterpart Wang Jiarui to Pyongyang earlier this month.
Wang, whose country hosts stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, met Kim Jong-Il and the leader expressed commitment in principle to denuclearisation.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun is reporting (via Bloomberg) that China asked Kim Jong-il to rethink his pln to name his son Kim Jong Un as his successor:
A Chinese official made the request to the brother-in-law of Kim Jong Il during a visit to China in May last year, the newspaper reported, without providing further details. The Chinese official also urged North Korea to give up its nuclear arms program and open up its markets, the paper said.
