North Koreans ‘pine’ for Dear Leader Kim as Russia trip winds up

North Koreans are counting the days until leader Kim Jong-il returns from his trip to Russia with “endless melancholia” in their hearts, North Korean state media has said. Kim arrived in Russia at the weekend on a rare foreign visit and met with President Dmitry Medvedev for talks on Wednesday in East Siberia’s Buratiya region. He is currently travelling home in his armored train. “Endless melancholia fills the hearts of the people…in the absence of their great leader and supreme commander-in-chief, comrade Kim Jong-il, who is now on a visit to Russia,” the Rodnom Sinmun paper – the official mouthpiece of the ruling Labor Party – said. “The Korean people are now making great achievements in their work to delight General Secretary Kim Jong-il when he returns home,” the state KCNA news agency said. “The Rangnang Ponghwa Garment Factory has almost attained its monthly target, while the Pyongyang Textile Mill has topped its daily assignments at more than 120 percent,” it added. The North Korean news agency also informed its readers that “the Musan Mining Complex, a major concentrated iron ore producer of the country, is working on installing large cone-type crusher No. 2.”