SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il came to China to look at the country’s economic reforms, saw many achievements he could apply back home,but will likely make few changes to his country’s anaemic economy, analysts said. They said any reforms would be difficult in an economy that is mostly closed to the outside world and whose leaders seem more interested in staying in power than boosting their people’s gross domestic product.

The trip was the most extensive tour of China’s economic developments since Kim took control in the North. Kim spent most of his time looking under the hood of the vehicle that propelled China on a path of a global economic power.

“North Korea is looking to create and grow new industries, to add special economic zones and to further increase agricultural production,” Strategic Forecasting said on its Web site (stratfor.com).

In Guangdong province, Kim saw China’s most prosperous region and the glistening goods it makes heading for a global market. North Korea is keen to develop its industrial base.

Kim saw the special economic zone of Shenzhen where international companies have come in China. North Korea has been eyeing its own special economic zones.

Kim saw Hubei province, a major agricultural area that has two items desperately sought by mostly rural North Korea — efficient farms and a plan to increase the industrial base.

But previous trips to China did not lead directly to North Korea reforming its own economy.

A trip to China in 2000 was soon followed by a summit in Pyongyang with South Korea’s leader and the start of two major development projects in North Korea. A China trip in 2004 led to a push for talks on the North’s nuclear programmes.

A large part of North’s recent economic development has come through cooperation with the South, which has recently become almost as important to trade with North Korea and as its main trading partner China.—Reuters