China's Wang meets with N. Korea premier

BEIJING, Jan. 22 Kyodo -
A senior Chinese Communist Party official visiting North Korea met Thursday
with the country's premier as well as a high-ranking member of the ruling
Workers' Party of Korea, North Korea's official media reported.
While the visit by Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese party's International
Department, is being followed closely for clues to the state of leader Kim Jong
Il's health, no mention was made in the reports about whether Wang is scheduled
to meet with Kim.
The Korean Central News Agency said in separate reports that Wang met with
Premier Kim Yong Il as well as Choe Thae Bok, secretary of the North Korean
party's Central Committee.
In the report about his meeting with Choe, Wang was quoted as saying that
bilateral relations, which mark their 60th anniversary this year, are
''steadily growing stronger.''
A six-member delegation led by Wang arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday.
If Kim holds talks with Wang, it would be the North Korean leader's first known
meeting with a foreign official since reports of his illness surfaced last
year.
Speculation of Kim's ill health intensified in September when he failed to
appear at an event marking the 60th anniversary of the country's founding.
But North Korea has vehemently rejected reports about the leader's health
setback. Its official press in recent weeks has run numerous pictures of him
visiting army units and factories.
Wang also visited North Korea around the time of the Lunar New Year in 2004,
2005 and 2008. He met with the North Korean leader on those visits and conveyed
Chinese President Hu Jintao's greetings.
Neither of the two reports mentioned Wang conveying such messages from the
Chinese president, in a possible indication that he may have other meetings in
which he would do so.
==Kyodo