The agency also told lawmakers that tanks had been deployed in some parts of Pyongyang as North Korea tightens control amid ongoing upheavals in the Middle East.

Citing to lawmakers serving on a parliamentary intelligence committee, the Chosun daily said Saturday the National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported Kim Jong-Un had been asked to visit China.

The invitation was extended when Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu visited Pyongyang in December last year and last month, respectively.

"We can't say exactly when, but Kim Jong-Un will certainly visit Beijing as he has received an official invitation," the NIS told the parliamentary committee.

"But it remains unclear whether Kim Jong-Un will visit China alone or simply accompany the leader," it was quoted as saying.

The two allies share an interest in pursuing Kim Jong-Un's visit to Beijing as China is seeking to undermine US influence over Asia while North Korea wants to solidify its hereditary succession program, the NIS said.

The spy agency has a policy of neither confirming nor denying reports it makes to the National Assembly.

When he visited Pyongyang last month, Meng expressed support for Kim senior's plan to transfer power eventually to his son, the North's official news agency said.

Meng hailed "the successful solution of the issue of succession to the Korean revolution", the Korean Central News Agency said in an unusually direct reference to the question of who will take over from the ailing autocrat.

"It has also been confirmed that tanks were deployed in some parts of Pyongyang," the NIS said.

"We understand the deployment of tanks was made for fear of concerns over the fallout from the pro-democracy struggles in the Middle East," it said.

Earlier on Friday, NIS chief Won Sei-Hoon was quoted as telling the same committee that North Korea has stepped up its campaign to block news on the Arab world's unrest for fear of disturbances among its own people.

But Selig S. Harrison, a North Korea expert and director of the Asia program at the Center for International Policy, said there were few parallels between North Korea and the Arab world.

North Korea is ethnically homogeneous and strongly united by a nationalist heritage, he said, adding it was this ethnic homogeneity and national ethos that have given the regime its staying power despite the ravages of famine and economic hardship.

These are precisely what the ruling oligarchs of the Arab world have lacked, Harrison wrote in the Los Angeles Times.

earlier related report
N.Korea renews demand that South return citizens
Seoul (AFP) March 5, 2011 - North Korea on Saturday made a fresh demand for the repatriation of all 31 citizens whose boat drifted into South Korean waters, warning inter-Korean relations would be otherwise seriously affected.

The latest message carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency came a day after the North refused to accept 27 of the 31, insisting that Seoul also hand over four others who want to live in the South.

"The South Korean authorities are forcing the detained guiltless inhabitants to separate from their families by appeasement and pressure," it said in a notice sent to the South Saturday.

"If the South Korean authorities do not comply with the DPRK's (North Korea's) just demand, it will seriously affect the North-South relations and the South side will be held wholly accountable for it," it said.

The 31 North Koreans were on a fishing boat which drifted across the Yellow Sea border in thick fog on February 5.

After almost a month the South said it would hand over 27 but announced that two men and two women would be allowed to stay as they had requested.

In a message late Friday the North demanded the unconditional repatriation of all 31, according to Seoul's unification ministry, whose officials had been waiting in vain at the border village of Panmunjom to hand over the 27.

A ministry spokesman has said the South would try to contact North Korea again early next week to send the 27 home across the border.

The communist state late Thursday accused the South of "despicable unethical acts" and said the group on the boat had been held hostage since February 5 in a bid to fuel cross-border confrontation.

Seoul's Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek has told parliament the four had been allowed to stay in the South in respect of their wishes.

The four include the 38-year-old boat captain, who apparently feared punishment if sent back and decided to stay when he saw how different life in the South is, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said.

Relations have been icy since the South accused the North of torpedoing a warship in March 2010 near the disputed Yellow Sea border with the loss of 46 lives. Pyongyang denies the charge.

In November the North shelled a South Korean island near the border, killing two marines and two civilians.

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