North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent a message of sympathy to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida over a deadly earthquake that hit central Japan on New Year's Day, state-run media said Saturday, in a rare move between the countries with no diplomatic ties.
It was Kim's first message to Kishida, according to Radio Press news agency, which monitors North Korea's official news media. Kishida has tried to realize an early summit meeting with Kim, but the plan has so far born no fruit.
In the message sent Friday, Kim "sincerely hoped" that the people in the affected areas would "restore their stable life at the earliest date possible," the official Korean Central News Agency said.
The leader expressed his "deep sympathy and condolences" to Kishida as well as the bereaved families and victims "upon the sad news that big casualties and material losses were caused" by the quake at the outset of the new year, KCNA said.
Japan's top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, said at a news conference Saturday in Tokyo that he would like to express gratitude to Kim for the message.
Hayashi said North Korean leaders had not sent any messages of sympathy to Japanese prime ministers in recent years, including at the time of the March 2011 quake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.
Asked if Japan will respond to Kim, Hayashi said the government has not replied to any sympathy messages from leaders of other countries yet as it has been concentrating on the rescue and relief operations.
Formal talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang remain dormant even though Kishida in May last year made a commitment to establish high-level bilateral negotiations to pave the way for an early meeting with Kim, without elaborating on what kind of official talks he envisioned.
The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling party, carried the full text of the message on Saturday, after reporting on the quake and damage it has caused earlier this week.
In the aftermath of the March 2011 quake and tsunami, then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il sent $500,000 to pro-Pyongyang Korean residents who were victims of the disaster.
At that time, North Korea's then No. 2 leader Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, also sent a message of condolence to a group of pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan.
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