N. Korea: Seoul Believes Kim Jong-il Failed to Meet Jiang Zemin(main event missing?)

Chosun Ilbo ^ | 06/09/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

Seoul Believes Kim Jong-il Failed to Meet Jiang Zemin

Seoul has concluded that a planned meeting last month between North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and former Chinese president Jiang Zemin did indeed fail to materialize.

Seoul has checked through various channels to find out whether the two met during Kim's visit to Jiang's hometown of Yangzhou but has found no evidence that they did.

A senior South Korean government official said, "No intelligence network found signs of their meeting."

Kim had traveled 3,000 km by armored train to Yangzhou and stayed there for three days. Seoul is trying to find out whether Kim expressly did so to meet Jiang and get his blessing for passing the North Korean leadership to his son Kim Jong-un.

North Korean regime founder Kim Il-sung, on his last visit to China in October 1991, met Jiang in Yangzhou. Kim Jong-il, to whom such filial gestures are important, is believed to have followed his father's travel route.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Perhaps the absence of Jiang is meant to be China's signal to Kim Jong-il that he won't be given choice to mess with terms dictated by Chinese regime. I suspected those in Beijing resented Kim's attempt to bypass the current power and pressure them through behind-the-scene power broker, and Jiang does not want to upset Beijing by meeting Chia Head.

So Chia Head spent a few days of forced time-off, taking boat ride and paying surprise visit to neighborhood discount store.

While Chia Head is grudgingly going along with China's plan on NK's special economic zone, he is sabotaging diplomatic plan laid out by S. Korea, U.S., and China, successful inter-Korean talk followed by 6-party talk and one-on-one talk with U.S.. Not sure if he wants to escalate it to another military provocation with S. Korea. Chinese general said that Kim may not count on China to clean up the mess afterward. At the least, he wants to bypass S. Korea and talk directly to U.S.. by resorting to hostile posture again.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[Steely Tom]

I thought Jiang was long gone. Retired.

Did Kim Jong-il think he’d be a shoulder to cry on?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Yes. Jiang is retired but still the godfather of Shanghai Gang, which fields 4 members at Politburo's Standing Committee. Xi Jingping, the presumed successor to current leader Hu Jintao, is also a kind of protege of Jiang. So he does have some influence, but may not want to go out on a limb for Chia Head.

[COBOL2Java]

...paying surprise visit to neighborhood discount store.

Hey, I wonder if he bought any Chia Pets! :0)