Kim was reportedly in Beijing on Wednesday ahead of summit talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, on his first trip abroad in years to secure much-needed economic aid.
The 68-year-old Kim, who arrived in China on Monday, is expected to offer Beijing assurances that Pyongyang will return to nuclear disarmament talks it abandoned more than a year ago, in exchange for economic aid and investment.
North Korea is under tough UN sanctions over its refusal to halt its atomic drive, and its economy suffered a new blow last November when a currency reform backfired, wiping out people's savings and sending prices soaring.
China is Pyongyang's sole major ally and its main source of finance, food and fuel. It is also seen as the only country with any ability to put pressure on Kim's hardline regime.
It occurs to me that perhaps North Korea wasn't sending any type of message to South Korea when Pyongyang sank that South Korean corvette over a month ago.
Maybe North Korea is sending a message to China: "Don't pressure us too much because you never know just how crazy we'll act under pressure. And you don't want a war on the Korean peninsula, because if we lose the war (and you know we will) a whole lot of North Korean refugees will flood China and South Korea (with America in tow) might move a lot farther north."
The North Koreans are being shy about admitting guilt publicly. I wonder if they are showing pictures of the attack to the Chinese?
