PYONGYANG, Oct. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- The Red Cross Society of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has decided to extend a line of relief aid amounting to 30,000 US dollars to Japan for victims of the recent devastating earthquake hitting Niigata Prefecture in northern Japan, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Friday.

    A quake with a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale hit Niigata Prefecture in northern Japan on Oct. 23, killing 35 people and destroying about 6,000 houses.

    The DPRK Red Cross Society had earlier sent a message of sympathy to the Japan Red Cross.

    "Upon hearing the news of an earthquake hitting Niigata on Oct.23, we express deep consolation to the victims and wish you a success in your work to eradicate the aftermath of the earthquake at the earliest and bring the living conditions of the people in the afflicted area to normal," the message said.

    The KCNA reported that the top DPRK leader Kim Jong-il ordered the extension of relief funds amounting to 100,000 dollars to the Korean victims of the strong earthquake that hit the rural Niigata region, about 250 km north of Tokyo.

    The quake caused at least 216 landslides and injured more than3,400 people. It was the deadliest to hit tremor-prone Japan since1995, when 6,433 people were killed in the western city of Kobe. Enditem