South Korea's intelligence chief predicted Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il could make a long-anticipated trip to China late this month.

Won Se-Hoon, head of the National Intelligence Service, told a parliamentary committee that Kim could visit Beijing around April 25, according to an unnamed lawmaker quoted by Yonhap news agency.

Won's prediction was based on Kim's likely attendance at his late father's birthday ceremony on April 15 and the overseas travel schedule of Chinese President Hu Jintao, the agency said.

South Korean officials said last week there was a "high level of possibility" that the reclusive leader would soon visit China.

Kim, who reportedly dislikes flying, previously travelled by train to China in 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2006.

Analysts say a trip would be aimed at seeking badly needed economic aid from China, and the North in return may feel bound to return to long-stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.

China is North Korea's major ally and its most important source of food and energy.

The North angrily quit the talks in April last year and vowed to restart production of weapons-grade plutonium. It carried out its second atomic weapons test the following month.

Pyongyang says it will not go back to the nuclear dialogue until United Nations sanctions are lifted, and until the United States makes a commitment to hold talks on a formal peace treaty.

North Korea had agreed in previous rounds of the six-nation talks to end its nuclear weapons drive in return for security guarantees and badly needed fuel assistance.

The talks involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States.