Report: Kim Jong-Il invited to Beijing Olympics for possible meeting with Bush
Thursday, June 26, 2008 Free Headline Alerts
North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il has been invited to attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games in August where he might meet President Bush, a Japanese newspaper reported.
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping made the invitation during his trip to Pyongyang last week said Taku Yamasaki, former vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party.
While in Beijing, Kim could also meet and hold talks with Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, the Asahi Shimbun reported.
Diplomatic sources said Kim might attend the Olympic Games because the setting could also generate the atmosphere and momentum for ending the North's diplomatic isolation.
But many North Korea watchers in Seoul said Kim is unlikely to make such a high-stakes diplomatic gambit given his fears about security.
"Kim also does not want China to be involved in a significant deal between North Korea and the United States," one intelligence source said.
Kim has made no reported oversea trips for two and a half years since he visited China in January 2006. Reports of his overseas trips have been held under the tightest secrecy until he returned home safely.
In 2004, Kim Jong-Il may have narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when his special train passed through a North Korean border town enroute from China just hours before a massive explosion decimated the railroad station and surrounding buildings.
Since the incident that killed some 170, North Korea had prohibited its citizens from using mobile phones in the country and confiscated all handsets, mostly from Workers' Party officials and those involved in trade, since security officials believed a cell phone was used to detonate the explosion.
A possible Beijing summit would open "a new communication channel toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," the newspaper reported. Both Bush and Fukuda have hinted that they may attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, it said.
A Japanese weekly magazine, Shukan Bunshun, reported that Xi's three-day visit to North Korea was aimed at inviting Kim to Beijing for a possible summit with Bush.
Kim held talks with Xi on June 18 during which time Xi delivered a message from Chinese President Hu Jintao. But the North’s media did not reveal the contents of the message.