North Korea’s Kim sends rare sympathy message to Japan over Ishikawa quake

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent a “message of sympathy” to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida following the devastating earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture that has left nearly 100 people dead and more than 200 missing.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a short dispatch Saturday that Kim had “expressed his deep sympathy and condolences to the prime minister and, through him, to the bereaved families and victims.”

In the rare communication between the two countries’ leaders delivered Friday — believed to be Kim’s first to Kishida — the North Korean leader said he “sincerely hoped that the people in the affected areas would … restore their stable life at the earliest date possible.”