North Korea's Kim meets with Chinese envoy
Chinese official meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il
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Friday, 23, Jan 2009 12:30
A Chinese official met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Friday to discuss improving relations between the two nations.
Kim, 66, has hardly been seen in public since he reportedly had a stroke last August.
However, the Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency reports Wang Jiarui, leader of the international department of the communist party in China, met with the North Korea leader in Pyongyang and delivered a letter from Hu Jintao, the Chinese president.
Mr Wang is currently leading a six-man delegation to North Korea to discuss improving economic ties with China.
The meeting has attracted considerable attention as it reported to represent the first time Kim has met a foreign diplomat since his illness.
"Common sense would say that Chairman Kim's health condition seems to be normal as he met with a foreign guest," Kim Ho-nyoun, a spokesman for South Korea's unification ministry, is quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.