N.K. leader may join Bandung Conference in April: source

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may attend an international meeting to open in Indonesia in April, a government source here said Sunday.

If Kim does so, it would be his debut to the international diplomatic scene as the isolated nation’s leader.

There has been no report of overseas trips by him since he took power in December 2011.

Keen attention is being paid to whether Kim attend a Moscow ceremony in May to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II.

South Korean officials also raise the possibility that Kim will head first to Indonesia for the Asian-African Conference, or the Bandung Conference.

The meeting is to be held in Jakarta from April 22-23, followed by a key anniversary event in the Indonesian city of Bandung on April 24.

The Indonesian government is expected to send invitations to the leaders of the two Koreas and other related countries.

The communist North apparently makes much of the Bandung Conference, from which the nonaligned movement emerged. Pyongyang has often sought to use it for diplomatic campaigns.

The North’s founding leader Kim Il-sung joined a 1965 ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the birth of the conference. The late leader Kim Jong-il accompanied him.

“For Kim Jong-un, who models himself after Kim Il-sung, the Bandung meeting will be a noteworthy diplomatic schedule,” the South Korean government source said. (Yonhap)