‘N. Korean Leader Invited to Beijing Olympics’

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has been invited by China to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics, the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun said yesterday.

Quoting Daku Yamasaki, former secretary general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the report said Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping made the invitation in his recent trip to Pyongyang.

Yamasaki also told reporters Saturday that if Kim accepts the invitation, he could hold talks with U.S. President George W. Bush or Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and open “a new communication channel toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

The Japanese weekly magazine Shunkan Bunshun also reported that one of the main purposes of Xi’s visit to North Korea was to invite Kim to the opening ceremony and encourage a bilateral summit with President Bush.

sya@donga.com