Kim’s sorrow after crash

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his “bitter sorrow” after dozens of Chinese tourists were killed when a bus they were travelling in plunged off a bridge.

Thirty-two Chinese tourists and four North Koreans perished in the accident south of the capital Pyongyang Sunday night, Chinese officials and state media said. Two other Chinese nationals were injured.

In a rare admission of negative news from North Korea’s tightly controlled propaganda network, the state-run KCNA news agency ran a report early Tuesday saying Kim (pictured) met personally with the Chinese ambassador in Pyongyang and later visited crash survivors in hospital. “He (Kim) said that the unexpected accident brought bitter sorrow to his heart and that he couldn’t control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families,” KCNA reported.

Xinhua news agency reported that the bus had fallen from a bridge in North Hwanghae province.

North Korean roads are largely poor and potholed, and in many areas they are dirt rather than tarmac, but the route from Pyongyang to Kaesong, where the accident reportedly happened, is one of the best in the country.