Sometimes I wonder if headline writers spend much of their time blogging. Often headlines are dashed off, ambiguous with double or unintended meanings. Much like blogs. For example, N. Korea's Kim in Beijing for Rare, Secretive Talks. Does this mean Mr. Kim will be sitting in silence for large amounts of time, and when he does eventually speak it is in a whisper? Perhaps a more accurate headline would be "Despot in China with hand out for more money as pay-off for blackmail". Not as snappy, but far more to the point.

Anyway here's how secret it is.

Kim's trip, cloaked in the secrecy that traditionally surrounds his rare overseas journeys, comes less than a week after Vice President Dick Cheney warned in Beijing that time was running out to resolve the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions that has gripped North Asia since late 2002. His special train crossed into China late on Sunday and traveled overnight to Beijing, South Korea's YTN cable television news said.

In a sign of the secrecy Kim favors, a convoy of unmarked cars, including a black Mercedes stretch limousine, pulled out of Beijing's main railway station and onto the wide Chang'an Avenue heading west toward the state guest house where he has stayed on previous trips...Police earlier closed the city's congested main road that cuts through the heart of the capital and runs along the north side of Tiananmen Square. Beijing's main railway station was guarded by military police and a station official said it was closed for the arrival of a special visitor, whose identity he said was a secret.

At the walled Diaoyutai State Guest House compound, an employee said Kim was due in on Monday. (my emphasis)

Kim's entourage included 40 high-level ruling party, state and military officials in a trip aimed to shore up ties, KBS said. Kim, who avoids travel by plane, was also seeking economic aid.

Pardon, Mr. Kim? You're having a bad hair day again? Don't worry, it happens to everyone.