After more than a week of silence on the trip which ended Wednesday, the Chinese media finally confirmed widespread reports that the enigmatic Stalinist leader had indeed travelled around China in a large motorcade.

State television showed Kim talking and dining with President Hu Jintao, Parliamentary head Wu Bangguo, Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice President Zeng Qinghong, and travelling with lesser leaders to Guangdong and Hubei provinces.

The leaders in their talks praised the merits of China's "socialist market economy" and pledged to further the Sino-North Korean friendship, reports said.

In Beijing, Hu took Kim on a personal tour of the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences where the two inspected seed samples, state television showed, possibly to help North Korea's farm sector and end years of famine.

Kim, dressed in his trademark khaki jacket, fired questions at academy scientists as he was shown hybrid strains of wheat and cotton, TV showed.

At the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province, Kim was seen wearing sunglasses as he looked over the huge spillway of the world's biggest hydroelectric project, accompanied by Vice Premier Huang Ju.

Kim also visited several factories in Shenzhen and Zhuhai in Guangdong province, known as the factory floor of China's booming export economy, where he was seen inspecting a container port and riding on a local subway.

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