KHABAROVSK, Russia, Aug. 22 Kyodo
(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Thursday visited a Russian orthodox church in Khabarovsk, the penultimate stop on his four-day tour of Russia's eastern regions.
The North Korean leader stayed in St. Bishop Innokenty Irkutsky Church for over 30 minutes, during which he asked clergymen about the history of orthodoxy and its difference from Catholicism and other religions, according to the Russian news agency Itar-Tass.
Kim earlier in the morning visited the Khabarovsk Amurkabel cable manufacturer and Dalkhimfarm Plant, the largest pharmaceutical factory in the Far East.
He dined at the Parus Hotel, built in 1902, which has hosted other leaders including former Soviet Union leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev, and former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
In the afternoon, he is slated to visit the headquarters of the Russian Far Eastern Military District and meet with Col. Gen. Yuri Yakubov, the military district commander, and other senior military officers.
Kim, accompanied by Kim Young Chun, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, also plans to visit an army unit of the Russian Far Eastern Military District in Volochayevsk, a small town 10 minutes away from the center of Khabarovsk.
There, he will be shown the weapons and military hardware used by Russian troops, military training grounds, barracks and the medical center, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass said. In the evening he will leave for the city of Vladivostok on his train.
While the North Korean leader reportedly visited several defense plants during his trip to Russia last summer, it will be his first inspection of a military unit.
Following his arrival in Khabarovsk, the largest city in Russia's Far East, the Kremlin confirmed that Kim Jong Il and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks in Vladivostok on Friday afternoon.
Kim last met Putin during his 24-day train journey through Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway in July and August last year.
On Wednesday, Kim toured the riverside town of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and invited 100 Russian children to take a vacation in North Korea.
During a cruise on the Amur river, Kim, who reportedly dislikes flying, told Russian specialists accompanying him that he does not suffer from aerophobia and is prepared to go to Moscow by air next time, Itar-Tass reported.
Explaining why he traveled to Russia by rail on both occasions, Kim emphasized that by looking out of a railway coach window one can get to know the life of another country much better than when flying over it, the report quoted him as saying.
The Russian government reportedly came under fire for the traffic tie-ups, train delays and other inconveniences that Kim Jong Il's train tour last year caused ordinary Russians.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo News International, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group