N. Korean Leader Tours Russian Space Facilities

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il toured Russia’s top space facilities Sunday, a day after holding talks with President Vladimir V. Putin that showcased renewed strategic ties.

Russian officials insisted that Kim’s tours of the Khrunichev space center and Mission Control outside Moscow were for pleasure, not business. He later boarded his armored train for a sightseeing trip to St. Petersburg.

ORT television showed Kim, the world’s most reclusive leader, smiling as he strolled through the space facilities amid the heavy security that has shadowed him since his train entered Russia a week and a half ago.

Deputy Prime Minister Ilya I. Klebanov showed Kim around the Mission Control center for the International Space Station, from which scientists also tracked the Mir space station for 15 years until it was ditched last spring.

Kim, in his trademark olive tunic, climbed into a life-size copy of Mir, and grinned when presented with a model of the Proton rocket, Russia’s main hope for competitive commercial satellite launches.

The tours apparently sought to show that Communist North Korea’s interest in missile technology is for peaceful aims. Russian media said Kim was conducting no talks on space issues.

On Saturday, Kim and Putin signed a declaration designed to tighten cooperation between their countries and “promote international security.” On Sunday, South Korea welcomed the outcome of the Kremlin talks.

“We think the two countries’ summit talk will have a positive effect” on relations between the two Koreas, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Seoul.

Outside North Korea’s embassy near Moscow, a handful of protesters denouncing Kim were led away by police for staging a demonstration without permission.

Kim, who is rumored to be afraid to fly, was to arrive in St. Petersburg today and return to Moscow on Tuesday before heading home on his 21-car train.