North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who made an abrupt visit to China for the first time in about a year, met Chinese Premier Li Qiang, a South Korean ruling party official said. Whether Kim will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping has not been disclosed.
Rep. Yoon Kun-young of the Democratic Party of Korea said in a separate notice to reporters on the 24th that Kim's meeting with Li, head of China's State Council, was being confirmed.
On the timing of Kim's return home, Yoon said it appeared almost certain to take place that day.
Yoon said the visit was believed to serve two purposes: sending a positive signal about a potential North Korea-U.S. summit, and marking an event in Pyongyang-Beijing relations such as the opening of the New Yalu River Bridge. He also said Kim may have traveled to China to coincide with what Beijing calls the anniversary of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. China, which refers to the 1950-53 Korean War by that name, marks Oct. 25 each year as the anniversary.
Kim is unlikely to hold a separate meeting with Xi, according to the account.
An official on the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee also said Kim was believed likely to meet Chinese officials who attended the opening ceremony for the New Yalu River Bridge, including Li.
Political circles are also watching the timing of the trip, which comes ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to be held in China next month. U.S. President Donald Trump has said he could meet Kim on the sidelines of APEC.
On the 19th, however, Trump said he did not know whether he would meet Kim at APEC.
Analysts also see the trip as aimed more at displaying the close alliance between Pyongyang and Beijing than at discussing a North Korea-U.S. summit.
Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, said in an expert commentary titled "Assessment and Outlook for Kim Jong-un's Abrupt Visit to China" that the trip was an event to reaffirm the traditional alliance at the top leadership level, timed to the 65th anniversary of the North Korea-China friendship and cooperation treaty and China's War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea anniversary on the 25th. Lim added that a North Korea-U.S. summit was unlikely to figure prominently in talks during such a short visit, and that any discussion would probably remain general.