NORTH KOREA: The North Koreans who are reliant for news on their country's official media learnt nothing yesterday morning of the tragedy that had befallen so many of their compatriots.
The 6 a.m. morning newscast on Pyongyang radio failed to make any mention of the story. Instead, it was preoccupied with the recent visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to Beijing.
The first 30 minutes of the hour-long broadcast were allocated to the following items:
Report on the visit to China on April 19th-21st by "Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong-il"
Full text of Chinese President Hu Jintao's speech delivered at a banquet he hosted to welcome Kim Jong-il
Full text of Kim Jong-il's speech delivered at the banquet
Full text of the message sent by Kim Jong-il to Hu Jintao while passing back across the border after completing his visit and finally, the piece de resistance,
a song about General Kim Jong-il.
The remainder of the broadcast included a report that Congolese radio had carried details of the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung's "10-point programme of great national unity for the fatherland's reunification" and Kim Jong-il's "five-point policy of great national unity".
The radio also broadcast slogans such as: "Let us endlessly glorify the glorious revolutionary history and immortal achievement of Great Leader Comrade Kim Il-sung who dedicated his whole life for the fatherland and nation!"
There was also an urgent report on the ending of the sixth Kimilsonglia flower festival.
Edited from the BBC's website, http://news.bbc.co.uk/ and based on information supplied by BBC Monitoring, a listening operation in Caversham in southern England, that selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages