Pay No Attention to That Man From Behind the Iron Curtain

He may be cruising in Guangdong province, shopping in Shanghai or banqueting in Beijing for nuclear talks. Or he may have never left Pyongyang.

For the last several days, rumors have swirled of a mysterious visit by North Korea’s Kim Jong Il. The secretive leader, reportedly fearing assassination, has a habit of announcing his trips to other nations after he’s safely back home. And China, as a close communist ally that once shared the North’s Cold War mind-set, is happy to oblige.

On Tuesday, a government spokesman in Beijing said that President Hu Jintao was meeting with a “foreign leader” during the day but that it wasn’t necessarily Kim. When asked to confirm that Kim was in China, spokesman Kong Quan said he had “not received any authorized information to provide at present.”

A motorcade was seen entering Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guest House on Tuesday, and by early today Kim was rumored to be on his way home.

A senior U.S. negotiator, in town last week to speak with Chinese officials in advance of a hoped-for next round of six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, was less reticent. “I understand we have some North Korean visitors here,” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said, adding that he wasn’t on Kim’s itinerary.

Speculation on Kim’s whereabouts spread after South Korean intelligence sources leaked word early last week that he was on the move. That dovetailed with a reported dawn sighting at the Chinese border station of Dandong, where, South Korean media said, soldiers sealed off the area to allow passage of a heavily armored train.

A round of “find the missing dictator” quickly followed as various reports placed him on trains and planes to Shanghai and Russia -- or still at home.

The spotlight soon shifted to China’s southern Guangdong province after the White Swan Hotel -- famous for housing foreigners in the process of adopting Chinese babies -- kicked out all its visitors Thursday for a mystery guest, ringing the area with security and installing metal detectors as a 30-vehicle motorcade sped in and out.

Japanese broadcaster NHK then stirred the pot by showing footage of a plump man with Kim’s characteristic big-hair look, surrounded by bodyguards outside the White Swan.

Not to be left out, Hong Kong newspapers tripped over themselves with a series of mini-scoops: that Kim had visited top Chinese Internet and telephone maker Huawei Technologies, taken a spin around the high-tech port of Yantian, visited a farm, stopped at the library of a university attended by many North Korean students.

“He had a big potbelly,” a library source helpfully informed the South China Morning Post, which said security during the visit was even tighter than for Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

Some officials at Kim’s various supposed stops flatly denied having seen the strongman or his trademark platform shoes. Others appeared to develop a sudden case of amnesia or were unavailable for comment.

“Kim Jong Il, he didn’t stay here,” a service center employee at the White Swan Hotel said Tuesday without giving his name or disclosing why the five-star establishment had closed its doors for several days.

Analysts say they aren’t surprised that Kim has elected to visit China now, if in fact he has, given that he tends to show up every year or two. Kim last visited in April 2004 and was expected to return soon, after Hu’s trip to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in October.

“Kim likely wants to know more about changes in China since our economic reform policy,” said Zhang Liangui, international relations professor with the Central Party School in Beijing. “He is very pragmatic.”

Analysts said any sit-down with Hu would probably focus on the six-nation nuclear talks, bilateral economic relations and reform of North Korea’s economy. The negotiators made progress last year when Pyongyang agreed in principle to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in return for security guarantees and aid. But the latest round, set for this month in Beijing, has apparently fallen through.

“If they are in fact meeting, Hu Jintao is probably trying to convince Kim Jong Il to stick with the six-party talks, even with the counterfeit currency issue out there,” said Xu Wenji, professor of North Korean studies at Shandong University, referring to U.S. allegations that Pyongyang is behind a racket to create fake $100 bills.

Even as foreign media have gone on a speculation binge, China’s official media and its sometimes vibrant Internet chat rooms have been all but silent, which tends to happen when Beijing propaganda officials tighten the screws.

But Chinese analysts note that Kim is not alone in his habit of making secret visits.

“Even Henry Kissinger kept his trip a secret until after he visited China,” Xu said. “Maybe Kim is just trying to avoid all the journalists.”

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Yin Lijin in The Times’ Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.