( CNN ) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was visiting China on Friday , a South Korean official said , according to state-run Yonhap news agency . The report contradicts earlier ones that Kim 's son and heir apparent , Kim Jong Un , was leading the visit . It was unclear whether his son was accompanying him . According to Yonhap , the trip would be Kim Jong Il 's third to China in a little over a year . The news follows last week 's revelation that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has officially invited Kim Jong Il to attend a nuclear security summit in Seoul next year . South Koreans pay close attention to the movements of the leadership of North Korea , perhaps the world 's most secretive regime . North Korean state media is often slow in reporting the Kims ' activities . Open Radio for North Korea , a South Korean non-governmental organization , said Kim was visiting China . The organization is partly staffed by defectors from the North . It maintains a network of informants in North Korea . `` I checked through my sources , and one had heard from a military officer working at the border yesterday that there was some kind of 'emergency ' along the border , '' said Ha Tae-kyung , the organization 's president . `` According to that military officer , it was Kim Jong Il who is going -- not his son . '' His account and the South Korean news agency report could not be independently verified . The term of Chinese President Hu Jintao 's term is set to expire next year , prompting some to anticipate greater diplomatic interchange between Beijing and Pyongyang as Kim seeks to forge relations with the incoming leader . It 's clear that North Korea needs help , analysts said . `` Kim Jong Il wants to get something from South Korea or the U.S. or China -- economic aid or security assurances -- but at the moment he is not getting anything and China is preventing North Korea from further provocations , '' said Choi Jin-wook of Seoul 's Korea Institute of National Unification . `` Kim wants to know what China is going to do for them . '' Heavily sanctioned following several nuclear and missile tests , Pyongyang has been reaching out to South Korea in recent months -- experts say the hardline state is desperate for a resumption of food aid . However , its customary form of leverage -- provocations -- is being restrained by Beijing , And six-party talks , which would offer economic incentives in return for North Korean denuclearization , have been in limbo for more than two years . Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter , who visited Pyongyang and Seoul last month , carried a message from Kim to South Korea 's Lee , in which the North Korean leader said he was ready to meet with the South 's president `` without preconditions . '' Seoul 's policy is to refuse high-level contacts until North Korea apologizes for two incidents last year that killed 50 South Koreans . South Korea accuses the North of torpedoing and sinking one of its warships in March 2010 , killing 46 sailors . In November , North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island , killing two South Korean marines and two civilians . Last week , however , Lee invited Kim to visit South Korea . `` The South Korean government did deliver a message of our invitation to North Korea 's leader to visit next year 's Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul , '' the foreign press officer from the presidential office said . Few , however , expect Kim -- a virtual recluse whose political decisions are made behind closed doors and who is reportedly paranoid about personal security -- to engage in such high-profile , transparent statesmanship as an international nuclear summit , or to visit Seoul . The last two inter-Korean presidential summits took place in Pyongyang .
An South Koreans official says Kims is in North Korea , according to report . It is his third visit there in slightly over a year . South Korean play close attention to the leadership 's movement in North Korea . It 's hard to obtain reliable information from and about China .