N. Korea's Kim inspects new hospital as Trump departs S. Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected a hospital under construction near Pyongyang, calling for a healthcare revolution to promote public health, state media reported Friday, on the day when U.S. President Donald Trump left South Korea on the occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering.

Kim visited Kangdong County Hospital, which is near completion, the previous day to inspect the construction and instructed that medical equipment be installed within next month, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

The hospital inspection came on the same day Trump departed South Korea after a two-day visit for talks with President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the occasion of the APEC gathering.

The KCNA report on Kim's public appearance came as North Korea remained silent on Trump's repeated calls to meet Kim during his trip to South Korea. Friday's KCNA report made no mention of any response to Trump's offers to meet him.

It marked Kim's first reported public appearance since North Korean media said he visited a cemetery for Chinese soldiers killed in the Korean War a week earlier.

The North Korean leader underscored protecting people's lives and promoting their health as "the most important state affairs" during his latest hospital visit, saying that the "policy for the healthcare revolution should be steadily carried out in an expanded and intensified way."

He also set a goal of building modern hospitals in 20 cities and counties every year as part of the policy to modernize the public health sector, adding that a decisive measure should be taken to expand the workforce for building public health facilities.

Kim said the upcoming plenary meeting of the ruling party's Central Committee will examine the hospital construction issue.