SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s reclusive leader turned up for talks with a senior Chinese envoy Friday, making his first such appearance in nearly a half-year in an apparent bid to show he is fit despite reportedly suffering a stroke in August.
Kim Jong Il met with Communist Party official Wang Jiarui, toasting the representative from North Korea’s main ally and saying his regime stands by its commitment to dismantle its nuclear-weapons program, state-run media in both countries said.
Wang is thought to be the first high-level outside official to have face-to-face contact with Kim since the North Korean leader fell out of the public eye amid speculation about his health.
Analysts said the meeting, coming just days after President Barack Obama took office, might be a way for Kim to show the new U.S. leader that he is ready for further nuclear negotiations. Kim appeared thinner but otherwise healthy in photos of the meeting in Pyong yang, the North Korean capital.
“The meeting appears to be aimed at telling Obama that Kim has no problem with his health and is well enough to meet with Obama’s envoy,” said Kim Yong-Hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Dongguk University.
Kim told Wang that Pyong yang is “dedicated to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” China’s official Xinhua news agency said.
After test-exploding a nuclear bomb in 2006, North Korea signed an accord with the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia agreeing to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for aid and other concessions.
