Putin offers Kim help as flood hit North Korea

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered condolences to North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un over devastating floods that caused untold casualties and damaged thousands of homes, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

The North, in turn, said Sunday that Putin had also offered “immediate humanitarian support” to aid its recovery efforts, to which Kim responded that he “could deeply feel the special emotion towards a genuine friend.”

Pyongyang said this week it had seen a record downpour on 27 July which killed an unspecified number of people, flooded dwellings and submerged swathes of farmland in the north near China.

“I ask you to convey words of sympathy and support to all those who lost their loved ones as a result of the storm,” Putin said in a telegram to Kim.

“You can always count on our help and support.”

“The message of sympathy from Moscow was conveyed to the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK” on Saturday, said the official Korean Central News Agency, noting it was immediately reported to leader Kim.

Kim thanked Putin for the outreach but said “already-established plans as state measures were taken at the present stage.”