N. Korea Leader Wraps Up Odyssey

An armored train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Il clattered across the North Korean border early Saturday, bringing the reclusive head of state home after a strange and protracted trip to Russia.

The 24-day visit was only Kim’s third journey outside North Korea since he took over leadership of the poor, totalitarian country in 1994 after the death of his father, Kim Il Sung. Both of his previous trips were to China.

Kim’s trip to Russia was marked by an obsession with security and capriciousness about scheduling. As he trundled by rail across Siberia to Moscow, then north to St. Petersburg and back again--he reportedly hates to fly--Kim frequently canceled planned appearances and made unexpected ones.

In St. Petersburg, for instance, he failed to visit Soviet Union founder Vladimir I. Lenin’s revolutionary headquarters and instead paid a visit to the Baltika brewery, Russia’s largest. On his return pass through Moscow, he canceled visits with Communist Party leaders and instead took a lengthy sauna at one of the capital’s premier hotels. Commuters complained of delays at train stations because the rails had to be cleared before Kim’s arrivals and departures.

Since North Korea is one of the world’s only remaining Communist states, Russia made a special effort to provide opportunities for Kim to pay homage to Soviet-era icons and protocols. For instance, Red Square was closed off so Kim could put a wreath at Lenin’s mausoleum--and goose-stepping guards were reinstated just for the occasion. The banner on the wreath read, “From Kim Jong Il to Vladimir Lenin.”

The centerpiece of Kim’s visit was a meeting Aug. 4 with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, who is eager to flaunt his influence with the leader of a country Washington considers a “rogue” state. While describing Kim as eccentric and his rule as a socialist anachronism, the Kremlin has nonetheless insisted that there is no reason the West’s relations with North Korea cannot be more “ordinary.”

Putin and Kim signed a document dubbed the “Moscow declaration,” in which the two sides asserted that North Korea’s missile program is peaceful and does not pose a threat to countries that respect North Korean sovereignty. Kim also pledged to preserve a self-imposed moratorium on ballistic missile testing--an apparent bid to gain Western support for developing a civilian rocket program, perhaps for satellite launches.

On his return trek across Siberia, Kim paid a visit to a physics institute and an aircraft factory in Novosibirsk. Unexpectedly, he also asked to tour a station in the Siberian city’s subway system.

“Kim Jong Il is a well-educated man with profound knowledge of the economy and modern technologies in a number of fields,” said Vladimir Popov, acting governor of Primorye, the last territory of Russia through which Kim traveled. “He is a very communicative and cheerful person.”

Popov noted that during a farewell ceremony, Kim sang along with a Russian folk ensemble in good Russian.

Assessing Kim’s sojourn on Saturday, the semiofficial Itar-Tass news agency observed: “True, there were inconveniences, and the resultant discontent is justified, but should [that] be the measure of the significance of the visit?

“In the modern world, Russia appears almost the only country that can help North Korea end [its] isolation. Where else could the North Korean leader go in order to approach the international community? Do we have the right to ignore the opportunity, however minimal?”