North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il was reportedly heading to Beijing on Tuesday for talks likely to centre on desperately-needed aid for sanctions-hit Pyongyang and stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations.
Kim's first trip in four years to China -- North Korea's sole major ally and its main source of finance, food and fuel -- has been seen by some analysts as a sign that talks on ending the North's atomic weapons drive could soon resume.
China is seen as one of the few countries with any ability to put pressure on Pyongyang's hardline regime, which has been subject to crippling UN sanctions for years.
But others say mystery over the sinking of a South Korean warship in March -- an incident in which 46 sailors were killed, and which Seoul has hinted could be Pyongyang's fault -- clouds any hope for an early return to dialogue.
Kim on Tuesday inspected a port under construction outside the northeastern city of Dalian, where he spent the night after arriving in China, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed sources in the city.
The North Korean leader's special armoured train was in the Dalian rail station, the sources said -- prompting speculation that he would soon head to the capital Beijing -- a journey of 8-10 hours, depending on the route.
The reclusive North Korean leader was expected to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday, Yonhap reported. The agency quoted diplomats as saying he would stay at Diaoyutai Guest House before heading home Thursday.
There has so far been no formal confirmation of Kim's trip from either the Chinese or the North Korean side. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters on Tuesday that she did not "have any information" on the issue.
A tourism official on the common border told AFP on Monday that the 68-year-old North Korean leader -- who reportedly suffering a stroke in mid-2008 -- had arrived in China.
Kim, who is said to dislike air travel, has visited China four times since 2000, each time by train. The last trip, in January 2006, was also shrouded in secrecy and only formally announced after it had ended.
Analysts said China could use the current trip to press the reclusive leader to return to the six-party nuclear disarmament talks he quit in April last year, in return for badly needed aid.
North Korea has suffered from persistent food shortages since the Soviet Union collapsed two decades ago. Ongoing shortages were further aggravated last November by a bungled currency reform.
"Kim will likely express his commitment to returning to six-party talks while leaving a date for the return up to host China," Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies told AFP.
"In return, Kim will receive economic aid from China."
North Korea had agreed in previous rounds of the dialogue -- which groups the two Koreas, China, Russia, the United States and Japan -- to end its nuclear weapons drive in return for security guarantees and fuel aid.
But it angrily quit the talks in April last year and vowed to restart production of weapons-grade plutonium, carrying out its second atomic weapons test the following month.
Pyongyang says it will not go back to the nuclear dialogue until UN sanctions are lifted, and until the United States makes a commitment to hold talks on a formal peace treaty.
But US and South Korean officials have indicated the talks cannot restart until suspicion is resolved about any North Korean involvement in the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan warship, which was ripped apart by an external blast.
South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak said Tuesday that his instinct told him the incident was "involving inter-Korean relations" -- the closest he has yet come to blaming the North. Pyongyang has angrily denied all responsibility.
Seoul on Tuesday urged China to play a "responsible role" in resolving tensions on the Korean peninsula sparked by both the sinking of the Cheonan and problems with an inter-Korean tourism project.
Yonhap news agency, quoting an unidentified foreign ministry official, said Seoul was "not happy" about the timing of Kim's trip while the warship probe continues.
Kim's visit comes after Hu on Friday met Lee and North Korea's number two leader Kim Yong-Nam on the sidelines of the World Expo in Shanghai.
It also comes as the United Nations opens a conference on the review of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Copyright 2010  AFP Global Edition
