A senior Chinese official has expressed support for the plan by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il to transfer power eventually to his youngest son, the North's official news agency said Tuesday.

It said Meng Jianzhu, Chinese state councillor and public security minister, "warmly congratulated" Kim Jong-Il on his re-election in September as ruling communist party general secretary, and son Kim Jong-Un on his election as vice-chairman of the party's Central Military Commission.

Meng hailed "the successful solution of the issue of succession to the Korean revolution", the news agency said in an unusual direct reference to the question of who will take over from the elder Kim.

The Chinese minister met leader Kim Monday to pass on "kind greetings" from President Hu Jintao and other officials, the agency said. He is at the start of a tour that will also take him to Laos, Singapore and Malaysia.

Meng "warmly congratulated" Kim Jong-Il on his birthday this Wednesday and presented gifts to the leader and to Jong-Un, the agency said.

China is the North's sole major ally and its economic prop.

Kim Jong-Il travelled there twice last year in what was seen partially as an attempt to secure support for Jong-Un, believed aged 27, as eventual successor.

The son was in September made a four-star general and appointed vice chairman of the party military commission, which oversees the 1.2 million-strong armed forces headed by his father.

"China expressed support and cooperation for the succession more explicitly by mentioning Kim Jong-Un by name," said Professor Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

"Before its people, Pyongyang is flaunting strong support from its key ally China for the new father-and-son leadership," Yang told AFP.

Leading military and security officials from the two countries held in-depth talks on issues "including the work to defend and glorify socialism", the North's news agency said.

"China must have promised to provide the North with materials for control and surveillance over the people," Yang said.

earlier related report
S. Korean foreign minister to visit Japan
Seoul (AFP) Feb 11, 2011 - South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan will visit Japan next week for talks on North Korea and bilateral ties, the foreign ministry said Friday, as Seoul tries to call Pyongyang to account.

The visit comes as Seoul is seeking to bring the North's uranium enrichment programme (UEP), which would open a new path for weapons, to the UN Security Council for possible condemnation and further sanctions.

During the two-day trip starting Wednesday, Kim will meet counterpart Seiji Maehara to discuss "pending issues including the North Korean issue and cooperation in regional and global stages," the ministry said in a statement.

China opposes taking the issue to the Security Council, a stance confirmed when its chief envoy to six-party disarmament talks Wu Dawei met South Korean nuclear envoy Wi Sung-Lac in Beijing Thursday, Yonhap news agency said.

During the talks, Wu stuck to Beijing's position that the North's enrichment programme should be handled within the framework of the six-party talks as part of an aid-for-disarmament deal.

"China's basic position is that all issues including the UEP should be discussed at the six-party talks," Yonhap quoted an informed source as saying.

"No agreement was struck at the Wi-Wu meeting, but the talks helped understand each other's position."

Pyongyang showed off its new enrichment programme to visiting US experts last November. It says the plant will be part of a peaceful nuclear power project, but experts say it could easily be reconfigured to produce material for atomic weapons.

The UN Security Council has ordered the North to shut down all atomic activities following two tests of plutonium bombs.

The six-nation talks grouping China, the United States, the two Koreas, Russia and Japan, have been in stasis since December 2008.

China wants them revived as part of a process to ease overall tensions on the Korean peninsula. The United States says the North must mend ties with the South before the nuclear dialogue can resume.

The two Koreas this week held their first talks since the North's shelling of a South Korean island on November 23, which killed four people including two civilians and briefly raised fears of all-out war.

But the talks aimed at easing tensions collapsed, with the North rejecting Seoul's demand for an apology for incidents last year that sent tensions soaring.