A Seoul-based daily says North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s special train was confirmed to have arrived on Monday in Shinuiju, a North Korean city bordering China.

The JoonAng Daily quoted a source in Beijing as saying Tuesday that Kim’s special train was in Shinuiju and that Kim’s trip to China may begin around Tuesday given that in the past Kim had passed through Dandong train station in China's Liaoning province to travel to China.

Shinuiju is connected to Dandong and is one of the only ways to enter the reclusive North.

The report quoted another source as saying that officers in the North’s secret service were found to have visited Beijing late last month, raising the possibility of Kim’s pending visit to China.

However, the paper was quick to quote a source in Seoul as saying that nothing outside of the daily routine had taken place at Dandong station as of late Monday.

The daily said that if realized, Kim’s visit could provide an important breakthrough in the Pyongyang-Beijing relations which were chilled recently after China supported a U.N. resolution condemning the North’s missile tests conducted in early July.

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