BEIJING - A 30-member North Korean delegation, led by a brother-in-law of leader Kim Jong-il, has arrived in China to tour economic facilities, diplomatic sources said yesterday. The chief of the delegation, Jang Song-taek, flew to Beijing Saturday aboard a North Korean Koyro Air plane and stayed one night at the Shangri-La Hotel, diplomatic sources in Beijing said.The North Korean delegation is to visit economic zones in Shenzen, Guangzhou and other southern Chinese cities where leader Kim toured during his trip to China in January, the sources said.
Kim's trip to China spawned speculation that communist North Korea planned a set of economic reform measures modeled after China's. A detailed itinerary for the North Korean delegation was not immediately available.
In recent weeks, Jang, the first deputy chief of the powerful Workers' Party's Central Committee, was also at the center of media attention when he was reportedly reinstated after disappearing from public view for two years. Jang, once dubbed North Korea's No. 2 man, was believed to have been under house arrest as the result of a secrecy-shrouded power struggle.