More greetings from heads of state to Kim Jong-un on the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the DPRK (previously) – each one of sufficient significance to require a separate news item at the official Rodong Sinmun. This time we have the presidents of Bangladesh, India, Cape Verde, the Maldives, Mozambique, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, plus the king of Cambodia, the king of Thailand, the captain regents of San Marino, and… the president of Ireland:
Kim Jong Un, president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, received a message of greeting from Michael Higgins, president of the Republic of Ireland, on Thursday.
The Irish president in the message offered sincere congratulations on behalf of the Irish people and on his own behalf to the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un and the people of the DPRK on the occasion of the national day of the DPRK.
The message wished the people of the DPRK peace, safety and happiness.
and the king of Sweden:
Kim Jong Un, president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), received a message of greeting from Carl ⅩⅥ Gustaf, king of the Kingdom of Sweden, on Sept. 9.
The message said:
On the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of the DPRK, I wish to convey to Your Excellency my best wishes for the future and for the welfare of the people of the DPRK.
It's a bit odd, isn't it? I suppose the Irish greeting is in the proud tradition of Eamon de Valera’s visit to the Third Reich’s minister to Ireland on 2 May 1945, offering his condolences on the suicide of the German head of state, Adolf Hitler.
The King of Sweden? I don't know. That our own queen might offer similar greetings is absolutely unthinkable. But then the last time anyone heard of the King of Sweden was back in 1931, when he featured in Cab Calloway's Minnie the Moocher:
She had a dream about the King of Sweden,
He gave her things that she was needin'…
Perhaps he's just trying to raise his profile.
Mick Hartley 
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