By
The Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) - China lifted the blanket of secrecy from a six-day visit by Kim Jong-Il, North Korea's reclusive leader, saying he had praised China's free-market reforms after getting a firsthand look.
Though foreign diplomats and reporters had known Kim was in China from Monday to Saturday and he was sighted several times, Beijing's announcement after he left was the first official acknowledgment that he had been there at all.
Kim's itinerary - including tours of the Shanghai's Stock Exchange and foreign-invested factories - raised speculation that he was studying fellow communist China's transformation to apply its lessons to his collapsed Stalinist economy.
China's Foreign Ministry fueled that interpretation.
The North Korean leader "saw with his own eyes the great changes that have taken place in Shanghai," ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said.
Kim told Chinese President Jiang Zemin that the changes "clearly show that the policies pursued by the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people are correct," Zhu said.
North Korean state media also reported the visit for the first time shortly after the Chinese announcement.
China Central Television showed Kim, a pale olive winter parka over his trademark Mao-style suit, visiting an exhibition, a steel mill, a high-tech park. At his side was China's reformist premier, Zhu Rongji, a blue overcoat atop a Western suit and tie.
Kim spent four of his six days in Shanghai, China's business capital. There, he got his most direct contact with Western capitalism ever: He toured a Buick plant half owned by American auto giant General Motors, U.S.-invested telecoms venture Shanghai Bell Company and a computer chip factory backed by Japan's NEC Corp.
The trip was Kim's second to China in eight months. Both trips were his only known foreign forays in 18 years. On that trip in 1983, also to China, he visited Shanghai - then a backwater, deprived of investment for decades by Mao Tse-tung and his colleagues because of its suspect roots as a capitalist haven.
Meeting with Jiang in Beijing on Saturday, Kim pronounced himself "extremely happy" at seeing Shanghai's changes, China's Xinhua News Agency reported.
Jiang praised Kim for making strides "in overcoming numerous difficulties in economic development," Zhu said.
China and North Korea were allies who fought U.S.-led forces during the 1950-53 Korean War, but they have seen ties fray over the past decade. Beijing pursued free markets and South Korean investment as the North's economy sank. Beijing has for years quietly urged Pyongyang to follow its example.
Once dismissed in the West as a reclusive tyrant, the 58-year-old Kim has won praise in recent months for efforts to end North Korea's self-imposed isolation and warm ties with Korean War foes. Last year, Kim hosted unprecedented visits to Pyongyang by South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
In their talks Saturday, Jiang praised the new detente on the Korean peninsula and Kim's willingness to speak directly with Washington and its allies about normalizing relations, Zhu said.
Despite the media fanfare finally given Kim's visit, the initial secrecy said much about the limits of North Korea's changes. Chinese state media normally reports at length about visiting dignitaries. When asked about the secrecy, Zhu would only say that both sides agreed on the timing of the public announcement.
Zhu said that Kim had left China but did not say where he went. Kim normally travels on his own train, making it likely he headed back to North Korea.
