Caring Kim’s ‘bitter sorrow’ as 32 people die in bus crash
KIM JONG-UN, the North Korean dictator, has met Chinese survivors of a deadly coach crash and expressed “bitter sorrow”, official media said, in reports that portray him as a compassionate and thoughtful leader.
Kim featured on the front pages of at least one North Korean newspaper, clutching the hands of some of those injured in the accident in which 32 people died on Sunday. He “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 who lost their blood relatives”, the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
The news will do no harm to efforts to promote a more human side of Kim ahead of talks with leaders from South Korea and the United States.
In a sign of the warming ties yesterday, South Korea revealed Kim would be served Swiss rösti at Friday’s summit in a tribute to the time he is believed to have spent at school in Switzerland. Other items on the menu include baked John Dory, a dish made from the flat fish, in a nod to Mr Moon’s younger days in the South Korean port city of Busan, and Pyongyang-style cold noodles with chilled meat broth.
Kim was dressed in a white medical overcoat as he met crash survivors and appeared sombre and concerned, reflecting on the importance that Pyongyang places on its relationship with China. KCNA twice quoted Chinese embassy officials in Pyongyang thanking Kim for taking time out of his “busy” schedule to meet them.
In Sunday’s accident a bus crashed off a bridge in North Hwanghae Province. Four North Koreans also died.