Korean leader visits China

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is believed to be making a rare trip to China today aboard his personal armoured train, South Korean news reports said.

Kim's train arrived earlier in the Chinese border town of Dandong, where some 200 Chinese soldiers and police had blocked traffic and access to the area, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported from the border.

Kim, who rarely travels abroad but had been rumored to be planning a trip to neighboring China, was believed to be on board, Yonhap said.

Officials at South Korea's Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they could not immediately confirm Kim's reported trip.

Kim's visit to China has been a focus of intense attention in recent months, with six-nation nuclear disarmament talks stalled for a year and tensions rising over the sinking of a South Korean naval ship in late March.

Kim, following through on Chinese President Hu Jintao's invitation last year to visit China, was expected to ask Beijing for financial help as Pyongyang copes with an economic crisis at home.

- AP