N. Korea’s Kim Given Warm Welcome in Beijing

North Korean President Kim Il Sung arrived Thursday for an official visit to China and called on South Korea and Washington to take “practical steps” to ease tension on the Korean Peninsula.

Kim, 75, arrived at Beijing Railway Station and was met by Zhao Ziyang, premier and acting Communist Party leader. He received a noisy welcome from hundreds of singing children and tearful North Korean students.

Kim, the world’s longest-serving Communist ruler and the object of an extravagant personality cult, attended a red-carpet welcoming ceremony in Beijing’s Tian An Men Square and entered the Great Hall of the People, where President Li Xiannian hosted a welcoming banquet.

The official New China News Agency quoted Li as saying in a toast that China “firmly supports” Kim’s proposal in December for high-level political and military talks between North Korea and South Korea.

“If the United States and the South Korean authorities really wish to ease tension on the peninsula, they should consider in real earnest (Kim’s) proposals,” Li said.

Li called on Seoul and Washington to remove “artificial barriers so as to resume the dialogue between north and south and begin tripartite talks as soon as possible.”

In his speech, Kim called on South Korea and Washington to take “practical steps” to ease tension on the peninsula.

The trip was Kim’s first official visit to a country friendly to the United States since Washington decided in March to allow freer contacts between U.S. and North Korean officials at social gatherings. Western diplomats said that Kim might use the trip to send a message to Washington through his hosts.

An East European source, a frequent visitor to the North Korean capital Pyongyang, said North Korea is eager to see China play the role of mediator between Pyongyang and Washington.

“Pyongyang is interested in tripartite talks with South Korea and the United States, or even in direct talks with Washington alone,” the source said. “And such an initiative can only come from Kim.”

Although China fought alongside North Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War, many Chinese scorn Pyongyang’s failure to open up to the West as China has done since the death of Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung in 1976.

Diplomats say ties improved after the Jan. 16 ouster of Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang.