Kim Jong Un made a surprise visit to Beijing on his first known trip outside North Korea since taking power in 2011, three people with knowledge of the visit said.

Further details of his trip, including how long Kim would stay and who he would meet, were not immediately available. The people asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the information.

Speculation about a possible visit by a high-ranking North Korean official circulated around the Chinese capital Monday, after Japan’s Kyodo News reported that a special train may have carried Kim through the northeastern border city of Dandong. Nippon TV showed footage of a train arriving Monday in Beijing that looked similar to one used by Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, to visit the country shortly before his death in 2011.

The unannounced visit is the latest in series of diplomatic power plays in Asia as U.S. President Donald Trump’s battle to lower the U.S. trade deficit becomes entangled with his effort to get Kim to give up his nuclear weapons. Chinese President Xi Jinping has found himself preparing for a trade war with Trump even after supporting progressive rounds of United Nations sanctions against the Kim regime.

The U.S. appears to have had no advance knowledge of Kim’s visit. White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told reporters on Monday that he couldn’t confirm reports of the trip and “we don’t know if they’re necessarily true.” A State Department spokesman, Julia Mason, responded to questions about the report with a single sentence: “We’d refer you to the Chinese.”

“What…

Spain’s showdown with Catalonia’s separatist leaders moved Monday to German courts as the region’s former president, Carles Puigdemont, embarked on what could be a weeks-long effort to avoid extradition from Germany.

A court in the northern town of Neumuenster ruled that Puigdemont, who was arrested Sunday in Germany, has to remain in custody for the length of the extradition proceedings.

The court said the formal requirements to detain Puigdemont had been met by a European arrest warrant issued by Spain.

In denying him bail, the court said Puigdemont posed a flight risk, concluding that he had “a strong incentive” to try to travel to Belgium where his chances of avoiding extradition might be greater.

Schleswig Holstein state prosecutor Georg Guentge said the former Catalan leader appeared “calm and composed” during Monday’s hearing, at times making legal arguments on his own behalf.

Guentge said Puigdemont can challenge the legal basis for Spain’s extradition request during the formal proceedings, which will now take place before the upper court in nearby Schleswig. Guentge said it isn’t clear whether a decision on the extradition request will happen this week and in the meantime Puigdemont will remain at the prison in Neumuenster.

With tensions flaring back home, Spain’s government said Puigdemont’s arrest at a highway rest area south of the German-Danish border during an attempt to drive from Finland to Belgium shows that “nobody can infinitely mock justice.”

Tens of thousands protested late Sunday in Barcelona and other Catalan towns, and some…