n South Korea's capital, most people aren't too worried by Kim Jong-un's blood-curdling warnings - they're too busy dodging traffic.

There can't be many places where a stranger comes up to you in the rain and gives you an umbrella. Or where a woman alongside you at a crossing leans over to put her umbrella over your bare head.

This kindness of strangers has been bestowed on me twice now. I've been out in the street, caught uncovered in a downpour, and been offered protection by the sheltering brollies of people completely unknown to me. And that is pretty marvellous. It transformed my day. If I may get schmaltzy: whatever the weather, there was sunshine in my heart.