China confirmed last night that North Korea's reclusive leader, Mr Kim Jong-il, made a secret two-day trip to Beijing this week, which appears to have renewed a strained friendship between the two communist allies.
Journalists in Beijing were summoned to a special briefing to be told the news, 24 hours after Mr Kim had returned safely to Pyongyang on Wednesday evening. Chinese television last night showed President Jiang Zemin hugging the diminutive leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Emphasising the different paths the two countries have taken, Mr Jiang wore a Westernstyle suit and tie while Mr Kim was dressed in a high-collared grey Mao jacket, and had a lapel pin with a picture of his father and founder of the DPRK, Kim Il-sung. The 58-year-old "Great Leader" who has rarely been seen in public, looked slightly paunchy but still has his trademark bouffant hairstyle. He had a reputation for a playboy life-style in his younger days, but told Mr Jiang he had given up smoking and cut down on drinking, according to a South Korean diplomat given an official briefing by the Chinese side.
He quoted Mr Kim as saying: "The developed look of Beijing left a deep impression on me."
The neon lights, modern skyscrapers, bustling traffic and well-dressed people of Beijing streets are bound to have made a deep impression on the North Korean leader, who has not travelled outside the borders of his isolated Stalinist nation since becoming head of state after the death of his father in 1994.
Mr Jiang held a banquet for Mr Kim, who also had talks with other Chinese leaders, including the Premier, Mr Zhu Rongji. The visit was described as "normal" by the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Ms Zhang Qiyue, although she acknowledged that it was the first visit by Mr Kim to China in 17 years.
The warmth of the greeting was taken by Beijing-based diplomats as a good omen for the first meeting between the leaders of North and South Korea, due to take place on June 12th-14th in the North Korean capital. Relations between China and the DPRK cooled after China established diplomatic ties with South Korea in 1992, but they appear to have put that episode behind them.
State-controlled media in both Beijing and Pyongyang described the talks as cordial. Mr Kim was promised food and other materials, Ms Zhang said. While China has prospered under its reforms, North Korea has struggled with failed agricultural and industrial policies. She noted that Mr Kim praised the result of China's capitalist-style reforms, while stating Pyongyang was "building Korean-style socialism according to its own situation".
China is believed to have been encouraging North Korea to open up to the world and liberalise its economy, not least because of a growing refugee problem on its borders, with thousands of North Koreans fleeing into China to escape near-famine conditions.
The visit is something of a coup for Beijing. By consulting his powerful neighbour in the run-up to the summit, Mr Kim has involved China more closely in the ongoing north-south process between Pyongyang and Seoul, which could end the last Cold War confrontation. Mr Jiang told the DPRK leader that Beijing "welcomes and supports a summit meeting between the two sides, and China also hopes that the two sides improve their relationship," according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.
South Korea, which has been seeking warmer relations with Pyongyang under President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine policy", welcomed the visit, "which is in line with the North's efforts to improve its international relations", according to Seoul.