[custom_adv] Several hours later, however both China’s Xinhua News Agency and the North’s Korean Central News Agency confirmed the traveller was Kim. [custom_adv] Kim was visiting China from Monday to Thursday, KCNA said on Tuesday morning. Kim, with his wife Ri Sol-ju, was accompanied by Kim Yong-chol, Ri Su-yong, Pak Thae-song, Ri Yong-ho, No Kwang-chol and other leading North Korean officials, KCNA said. [custom_adv] Xinhua announced that Kim was visiting “at the invitation of Xi Jinping”.South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing an unspecified source familiar with North Korean issues, said that a North Korean train carrying a “high-level” official had crossed the border into China at 10.15pm on Monday. [custom_adv] Meanwhile South Korea’s Hankyoreh newspaper, citing an unidentified source with close knowledge of North Korea-China affairs, reported that Kim was on the train to Beijing to meet with Xi. [custom_adv] It was expected to arrive in Beijing at 10am on Tuesday, Yonhap reported. [custom_adv] Hotels around the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge linking Dandong with the North Korean town of Sinuiju barred guests from entering rooms that faced the Yalu River crossing on Monday afternoon, in an apparent move to prevent the train from being seen, sources told Kyodo News. [custom_adv] Security in Beijing would also be strengthened early on Tuesday morning, another source told Kyodo. Joongang daily in Seoul quoted sources in Dandong saying that Chinese security agents were deployed at China’s end of the railway bridge. [custom_adv] At their historic meeting in Singapore on June 12, 2018, Kim and Trump agreed that the United States would provide security guarantees to North Korea in exchange for its “complete denuclearisation”. [custom_adv] In an interview with CNBC on Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that despite the growing frictions of the US-China trade war, Beijing had supported the drive to denuclearise the Korean peninsula. [custom_adv] “China has actually been a good partner in our efforts to reduce the risk to the world from North Korea’s nuclear capability. I expect they will continue to do so.”