The public broadcaster NHK aired grainy, blurred footage showing a man with a bouffant hairstyle - a trademark of the reclusive leader - and dark glasses leaving a luxury hotel in Shenzhen early Sunday to get into a black car.

The car sped off while men in black kept watch from the sidewalk.

Kim is believed to have visited high-tech companies in Shenzhen, as the car which left the hotel was later spotted in a convoy of vehicles on the road leading to an area that is home to a cluster of technology firms, NHK said.

Another Japanese channel, the private Asahi network, said Kim had also inspected the free trade zone in Shenzen and climbed to the top floor of a skyscraper in the southern Chinese boomtown on Sunday.

Asahi said the Shenzhen tour followed his inspection on an advanced-farming company in Guangzhou on Saturday.

"He visited our factory yesterday," the channel quoted a Chinese employee of the company as saying by telephone Sunday.

"The number of products (he inspected) was more than 200. Most of them were vegetables such as organic vegetables ... Chinese government leaders seemed to be accompanying (Kim)," he said, as quoted by the network.

China has maintained a media blackout on Kim Jong-Il as reports from overseas continued to suggest he was paying a clandestine visit to the country.

With no confirmation from Beijing or Pyongyang, there has been frenzied speculation over Kim's whereabouts since he was reported to have crossed into China aboard a special train on Tuesday.

Kim last visited China, North Korea's strongest political and ideological ally, in April 2004 when he held talks with leaders in Beijing.

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