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orth Korea’s second-highest leader, Kim Yong-nam, arrived in Jakarta on Sunday afternoon for a four-day visit, prompting activists to call on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to help push for democratization and respect for human rights in the isolated state.

Presidential foreign affairs spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said the state ceremony to welcome Kim, the president of North Korea’s Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, will be held at the Merdeka Palace on Tuesday morning followed by a bilateral meeting. Yudhoyono will host a state dinner at the Palace for Kim in the evening.

Kim, who is accompanied by three ministerial-level officials, is also slated to have meetings with the Speaker of the House of Representatives and leadership of the People’s Consultative Assembly. He is also scheduled to visit Kalibata National Heroes’ Cemetery in South Jakarta and hold a separate meeting with Vice President Boediono.

Both Faizasyah and Yudhoyono’s other spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha, however, said the Palace was still working on the details of the schedule.

Julian said that Kim’s visit would not affect Indonesia’s good relationship with South Korea.

“Indonesia has developed a good relationship with North Korea since we started our diplomatic relations in 1961,” he said.

Indonesia has adopted what it calls a “free-and-active” foreign policy, which allows it to be consistent in counting on both North and South Korea as friends.

Kim’s visit takes place in the midst of global concerns over the country’s nuclear program and a recent failed rocket launch. North Korea has been accused of spending lavishly on military projects while leaving millions of its citizens in poverty.

Kim, 84, is believed to rank only below the country’s new leader, Kim Jong-un, but he is considered to wield considerable political clout given the years he has accumulated in politics.

The younger Kim inherited the leadership from his father, Kim Jong-il, who died last December. Kim Yong-nam is also known to function as North Korea’s foreign minister.

Given Kim’s considerable power, many believe that he is the key person in North Korea to negotiate with.

“As a member of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Indonesia must fulfill its international obligations in promoting human rights by utilizing Kim’s visit to initiate a progressive dialogue on overcoming the prolonged human rights problems in North Korea,” Marzuki Darusman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation concerning human rights in North Korea, told The Jakarta Post.

“There are about six million North Koreans who are so close to death because of famine. There have also been accusations that 150,000 to 200,000 people have been detained without trial for political reasons. This can only be changed through an international movement. If Indonesia fails to do this, we can be accused of negligence,” the former attorney general said.

Responding to the demand, Faizasyah said: “We will use the bilateral meeting to also discuss geopolitical issues in the region.”

Haris Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said that Yudhoyono must also be able to persuade Kim to provide access to Marzuki as UN Special Rapporteur to observe the situation in the country.

Foreign affairs expert Hikmahanto Juwana of the University of Indonesia said that Yudhoyono and Marty could score a diplomatic victory if they could persuade North Korea to end its nuclear program, promote democracy and restart the reunification program with South Korea.

Indonesia’s Communications and Information Ministry and its North Korean counterpart signed an agreement last week in the field of communication and information technology in Yogyakarta. The agreement included the exchange of officials and journalists between the two countries, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

This is Kim’s third visit to Indonesia in the past decade. He last visited in 2005 to attend the Asian-African Conference.

In 2002, he met then-president Megawati Soekarnoputri, whose family’s relationship with the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dates back to 1964.