North Korea: Kim Jong-il, supreme leader of the secretive Stalinist state of North Korea, spent the weekend visiting China's richest city, Shenzhen, a buzzing frontier town near Hong Kong known for its liberal economy, and his visit prompted speculation that he could be about to embark on a reform programme.
All week there had been speculation about whether he was making one of his rare trips abroad, with rumours that he had been spotted in Shanghai. As evidence mounted that he was in Shenzhen, attention turned to finding out what exactly he was doing on his visit, his first since 2004.
North Korea is one of the world's poorest countries and Kim's visit to China could be a signal that he might relaunch economic reforms based on China's success in implementing economic reform policies.
For North Korea, China stands as an example of a Communist country which has introduced change by adapting socialist principles to implement market-orientated reforms.
One of Pyongyang's few friends in the world, China supplies grain and oil, which do much to keep the teetering regime from collapse. South Korea is also a major aid donor. After Kim's visits to Beijing and Shanghai in 2000 and 2001, North Korea began to experiment with reforms that allowed limited private markets and curtailed rationing.
Significantly, his visit took in a tour of high-tech factories in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, a centre of the economic hothouse known as the Pearl River Delta. Over half the world's manufactured goods are now made in China, and a large proportion of them are produced in this region.
Kim is unlikely to go home without meeting Chinese leaders to discuss how to resume stalled six-party talks aimed at ending a nuclear stand-off on the Korean peninsula. Some reports say he has already met president Hu Jintao.