SEOUL:  North Korea`s "loving" leader Kim Jong-Il sent the air force to rescue dozens of people trapped by flash floods after heavy rain this week, Pyongyang`s official media reported Friday.

A Korean Central Television broadcast, monitored by the South`s Yonhap news agency, said 28 centimetres (11 inches) of rain fell in the northwestern area of Unsan between Wednesday and Thursday.

It said dozens of people including women and children were stranded by floods until Kim ordered their rescue.

"Four airplanes carrying out his great love flew without hesitation" to Unsan and two other areas also hit by floods and saved a total of 68 people, the TV said.

Those rescued "looked up toward the skies over Pyongyang and shouted `Hail to Dear General` at the top of their voices to salute him with gratitude", the station said.

The North suffers frequent floods during the rainy season due to deforestation of hillsides for firewood or agriculture and a lack of flood control measures.

In August 2007 the country`s worst floods in a decade left at least 600 people dead or missing.

This week the North twice discharged water from its border dams after notifying the South.

Kim and his late father Kim Il-Sung are the subject of an all-pervasive personality cult.

In 2007 official media paid tribute to flood-hit family members who had let their children drown while saving photos of the former and current leaders.

BDST: 0915 HRS, July 23, 2010