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| China-Japan-Koreas | ||
| Kimmie stops in Harbin on his way home | ||
| 2010-08-30 | ||
BEIJINSHENYANG, China, Aug. 29 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il stopped over in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, on his way home from a surprise trip to China, sources said Sunday. Kim arrived in the city at midnight and stayed near Songhua River before paying a visit to a historic site there symbolic of the anti-Japanese movement by Kim Il-sung, the North's late founding leader and father of the current leader, sources in the city said.
The North Korean leader is expected to leave Harbin for Pyongyang around 10:00 p.m. on Sunday or 6:00 a.m. on Monday, as the Harbin train station is planned to be under access restrictions during those times. Kim's visit to Harbin came as the communist country's leader was believed to be headed to a third destination in China instead of returning home. Kim's special train left the Chinese city of Changchun around 9:15 p.m. Saturday in what was believed to be a departure for home. As of Sunday morning, however, there were no signs the train had entered North Korea via the Chinese border cities of Dandong or Jian, the two most likely rail gateways in which the train had been expected to pass through. Kim's "special train appears to have taken a different route," a diplomatic source in Beijing said, raising the possibility that the reclusive leader could have headed further north to the cities of Yanji or Tumen in northeastern China near the border with North Korea.
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| Posted by:Steve White |