North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il reportedly arrived in the Chinese city of Changchun on Saturday on the second day of a secretive trip with his isolated state in desperate need of economic aid.
They also say it shows he is firmly in charge despite health concerns. Kim, 69, suffered a stroke in August 2008 and has since been putting in place a succession plan involving his youngest son and heir apparent Kim Jong-Un.
Kim Jong-Il's special train, which left Mudanjiang City in Heilongjiang Province late Friday, was seen pulling into the railway station in Changchun, capital of northeastern Jilin Province, on Saturday morning, YTN TV said.
The frequent trips to China by the reclusive leader ''underscores the North's desperate need'' for aid from China, Professor Cho Young-Ki of Korea University told the Chosun daily.
The North's two-way trade with China rose 32 percent last year to $3.47 billion, after South Korea severed most trade ties in protest at border attacks blamed on its neighbor.
The communist regime in North Korea is desperate to improve living standards and revive the economy before the 100th anniversary next year of the birth of founding president Kim Il-Sung, the current leader's father.
UN agencies said six million people -- a quarter of the population -- need urgent aid in the North, where a famine in the 1990s killed hundreds of thousands.
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