N Korea leader's train 'in use'

Mr Kim, 66, is reportedly suffering from heart disease and diabetes

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's personal train has made several recent trips, according to South Korean media.

The news is the latest indication that the reclusive leader has recovered from his recent poor health.

South Korean and US intelligence confirmed the train's movement with satellites and surveillance planes, according to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

Mr Kim is thought to have had a stroke in August, leading to rumours he is no longer well enough to be in control.

Speculation about Mr Kim's health came amid continuing international negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programme.

Speculation

Intelligence agencies following the movement of the train with the KH-12 satellite, the U-2 scout plane and South Korea's Kumgang spotter plane confirmed that the train had been in use - the first report of it moving since August, Chosun Ilbo reported.

A senior South Korean intelligence officer said the train had gone to areas where North Korean media had previously said that Mr Kim had visited.

The North's official KCNA news agency reported for six days in a row on Mr Kim's visit to various locations in Jakang Province, where he was said to have inspected a ceramics factory and military units.

"We think it is highly likely that he actually visited these cities," the intelligence source told Chosun Ilbo.

Another government source said that circumstantial evidence suggested Mr Kim was hospitalised in the elite Ponghwa Hospital after his stroke and was discharged between early and mid-October.

North Korea has released a series of photographs of 66-year-old Mr Kim in recent weeks, but because none of them provided confirmation of when they were taken, analysts have not taken this as definite proof of Mr Kim's recovery.

'No trust'

Separately, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told US television at the weekend that the six-party talks aimed at containing North Korea's nuclear programmes remained the best way forward.

She rejected criticism that the US had been too trusting of North Korea.

"Of course we didn't trust them. What we are negotiating is a verification protocol because nobody does trust them," she told the NBC network's Meet the Press programme.

"A lot has been achieved" in the multilateral talks over the past six months, she said, including the shutdown of the North's main nuclear reactor and blowing-up of its cooling tower.

"I think more will be achieved, but it's really only going to be achieved in the context of the six parties."

"If you don't have China and South Korea and Russia and Japan at the table, too, then the North can play the game that they used to play of getting benefits from other parts of the international community and refusing to carry forward on its obligations," Ms Rice said.

North Korea had agreed in principle that it would receive fuel and other aid in exchange for dismantling its nuclear programme, but talks have now stalled over verification procedures for nuclear material.