Image copyright AFP PHOTO / KCNA VIA KNS Image caption Mr Kim was pictured in state media speaking to an injured Chinese tourist 
 
 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has expressed "bitter sorrow" over a bus accident that left 32 Chinese tourists and four North Koreans dead. 
 
 The accident took place on Sunday night in North Hwanghae province, when the tour bus plunged off a bridge. 
 
 It is rare for North Korea's tightly-controlled media to report on negative news, and for Mr Kim to acknowledge the incident itself is even more unusual. 
 
 China is the North's main political ally and largest trading partner. 
 
 "[Mr Kim] said that the unexpected accident brought bitter sorrow to his heart," the official KCNA news agency reported. 
 
 "He couldn't control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families who lost their blood relatives." 
 
 Image copyright AFP PHOTO/KCNA VIA KNS Image caption Mr Kim expressed his 'sorrow' to Chinese ambassador Li Jinjun (2nd R) 
 
 The North Korean leader was pictured visiting injured passengers in hospital. The report said he "personally learned about the treatment". 
 
 He also visited the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang, where he met the Chinese ambassador to North Korea Li Jinjun and "expressed his heartfelt condolences and sympathy." 
 
 China and North Korea have been long-time allies. Mr Kim's rapid visit to the injured people - and the reporting of it - is likely to be seen in part as a way of protecting his image among the Chinese population. 
 
 Chinese tourists make up an estimated 80% of foreign tourists to North Korea - providing an important source of currency for Pyongyang. 
 
 Mr Kim earlier this year visited Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, his first known foreign trip since he took office in 2011. 
 
 China is responsible for virtually all of North Korea's food and fuel aid and by many measures, can be considered its most important partner. 
 
 North Korea recently announced it was halting all nuclear and missile tests, as it builds up to major summit with the leaders of South Korea and the US. ||||| In this Sunday, April 22, 2018 image taken from video footage by China's CCTV via AP Video, an injured passenger receives medical treatment at a hospital following a bus accident in North Hwanghae province,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Sunday, April 22, 2018 image taken from video footage by China's CCTV via AP Video, an injured passenger receives medical treatment at a hospital following a bus accident in North Hwanghae province, south of Pyongyang, North Korea. A traffic accident in southern North Korea has killed dozens... (Associated Press) 
 
 BEIJING (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has met with China's ambassador and visited a hospital where Chinese tourists were being treated after a deadly bus crash. 
 
 The crash Sunday evening killed 32 Chinese and four North Koreans, and two Chinese were seriously injured. China's official Xinhua News Agency said late Monday that the tourist bus fell from a bridge in North Hwanghae province in southern North Korea. 
 
 Photos provided by the North Korean government on Tuesday showed Kim meeting with Ambassador Li Jinjun at the hospital and at the Chinese Embassy. 
 
 China's Foreign Ministry said a medical team and diplomats were sent to help. It described the North Korean casualties as "workers." All visitors to North Korea must be accompanied by minders. 
 
 Chinese tourists make up the vast majority of visitors to North Korea, where they often pay homage at sites related to China's participation in the 1950-53 Korean War. 
 
 China and North Korea share a lengthy border and a traditional friendship. China remains Pyongyang's largest trading partner, although commerce has dropped off by about 90 percent under United Nations sanctions. 
 
 Only about 5,000 Westerners visit the isolated, hard-line communist state each year. Americans have been banned from traveling to North Korea without special permission from the U.S. State Department since September amid concerns about the fate of those detained there in the past. 
 
 The cause of the crash wasn't mentioned. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed the mangled wreckage in the dark with rain falling and rescue vehicles on the scene. 
 
 North Korean roads are often bumpy and poorly maintained. There is usually no lighting other than headlights at night, even on major roads outside of the cities. Drivers tend to travel at whatever speed they feel is safe, making the roads even more dangerous, particularly when the weather is bad. ||||| This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on June 30 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, observing a tactical rocket firing drill by the Korean People's Army Strategic Force at an undisclosed place in the country. (Photo: AFP) 
 
 BEIJING — Two U.S. citizens detained in North Korea face prosecution for "hostile acts" against the country, North Korea's state news agency KCNA said Monday. Suspicions about the two men were confirmed by evidence and their own testimony, said KCNA, without offering any details or a trial date. 
 
 The move to put Jeffrey Fowle, 56, and Matthew Miller, 24, on trial — both entered North Korea as part of separate tourist trips earlier this year — could result in long jail terms. Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, 45, is serving a 15-year sentence of hard labor in North Korea for similar alleged "hostile acts." 
 
 But the decision to prosecute may instead serve as the prelude to eventual release as has happened with other foreigners held in recent months by the highly isolated and super-sensitive regime. 
 
 U.S. Korean War veteran Merrill E. Newman was released in December after more than a month of detention and a confession he later said was coerced. In March, Pyongyang expelled Australian missionary John Short after he confessed to distributing Christian leaflets. 
 
 Both Short, 75, and Newman, 85, were released partly because of their age, said North Korea. 
 
 News of the indictment came a day after the North displayed characteristically belligerent behavior by firing two short-range ballistic missiles, in defiance of a United Nations ban. The missile test was deliberately timed just ahead of a visit to the South Korean capital, Seoul, this week by Chinese President Xi Jinping, said Tong Kim, an international relations expert at Korea University in Seoul. 
 
 "As usual (North Korea) is using multiple ways to seek attention," said Kim. Pyongyang is also sending a warning message to China, Kim said. " 'Don't forget us, don't sell us out.' " 
 
 KCNA said earlier that Miller entered North Korea April 10 with a tourist visa, which he then tore up at Pyongyang airport, and shouted that he wanted asylum. Fowle arrived on April 29. Japan's Kyodo News reported he was later detained for leaving a Bible in his hotel room. A family spokesman said Fowle was not on a mission for his church, according to the Associated Press. 
 
 Miller was traveling with New Jersey-based Uri Tours, one of a small but growing number of specialist firms that offer travel to this little-visited nation, whose regime has threatened nuclear strikes against the USA. 
 
 This September 2010 photo shows American tourist Jeffrey Edward Fowle, from West Carrollton, Ohio. (Photo: AP/William G. Schmidt, The Dayton Daily News) 
 
 In an updated travel warning in May, the U.S. State Department said it "strongly recommends against all travel by U.S. citizens to North Korea." But U.S. citizens have become the single largest category of Western visitor, said Simon Cockerell, managing director of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, the most well-established operator of trips to North Korea. At least one quarter of North Korea's estimated 5,000-6,000 Western tourists in 2013 were from the USA, he said. 
 
 Former NBA star Dennis Rodman's frequent visits with North Korea's leader Kim Jong un have spurred U.S. interest, Andrea Lee, CEO of Uri Tours, told USA TODAY in January. "It can be a heavy trip, with a lot to digest, and some people aren't ready for it," she said, but others form a strong bond with their guides. "North Koreans say: 'We hate American policy, we don't hate American people,' " she said. 
 
 In recent years, North Korea has sometimes released detained Americans after visits by U.S. heavyweights, said Korea University's Kim. "But I don't see any chance for Washington to change its position on human rights, nuclear and security issues," he said. 
 
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– A crash that killed 32 tourists from North Korea's chief ally brought "bitter sorrow" to the heart of leader Kim Jong Un, according to Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency. The agency—in a rare admission of bad news—said the Chinese tourists and four North Koreans were killed when a tour bus plunged off a bridge in North Hwanghae province, south of the capital, the BBC reports. Kim "couldn't control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families who lost their blood relatives," KCNA said. The AP reports that China, source of the vast majority of foreign tourists to North Korea, has sent diplomats and a medical team to assist.