State media describes reaction of regime leader after 32 visiting Chinese died when their coach plunged off a bridge
Kim Jong-un expressed his “bitter sorrow” over the deaths of dozens of Chinese tourists after their bus plunged off a bridge in North Korea.
The state-run KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday that the North Korean leader had visited two Chinese survivors of the crash on Sunday in which 32 Chinese and four North Koreans died.
In his first reported visit to the Chinese embassy on Monday, Kim was quoted as saying he felt “uncontrollable grief” over the accident in North Hwanghae province.
The display is another sign that Kim is attempting to portray himself as a conventional leader – equally at ease offering sympathy to victims of tragedies as making fiery pronouncements – ahead of Friday’s summit with the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, and another planned meeting with Donald Trump in late May or early June.
The agency quoted Kim as saying the North Korean people “take the tragic accident as their own misfortune”. North Korean authorities would do all they could “to alleviate the pain of the bereaved families”.
Li Jinjun, China’s ambassador to North Korea, thanked Kim and said his visit to the embassy demonstrated the two countries “unbreakable and great friendship”, according to an account of the meeting by Yonhap news agency.
