Seoul, Mar.5 (ANI): China is reported to have formally invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's heir apparent Kim Jong-un for a visit, but no dates have been revealed.
South Korea's spy agency believes Kim Jong-un is likely to accept the invitation and visit Beijing soon, said the lawmaker who is a member of the parliament intelligence committee after a closed-door briefing.
Little is known about Jong-un other than he is in his late 20s and had a Swiss education.
South Korean officials said the North's official media have been on a campaign to paint him as the person best fit for leadership of the state founded by his grandfather.
The visit, if it takes place, will boost Jong-un's standing as the North's next leader, as China remains the reclusive North's main economic and political backer, The Star reports.
Jong-un is likely to ask China for large-scale economic aid when he visits, a Japanese newspaper reported earlier last week, adding he could go as early as this month, after the end of China's National People's Congress meeting.
China has stood by the North even when Pyongyang was harshly criticized after the sinking of a South Korean navy ship last year.
Tension between the two nations rose to its highest since the 1950-53 Korean War, after the South accused the North of sinking one of its naval ships and later bombarding a South Korean island in the sea off the peninsula's west coast. (ANI)
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