BANGKOK, April 10, (AP): The UN special envoy for Myanmar has made a visit to the military-ruled nation, meeting Wednesday with the foreign minister as the country recovers from an earthquake that killed more than 3,600 people. It is the second visit the envoy, Australia’s Julie Bishop, has made since her UN appointment last year.

She previously made a low-key visit that was made public only when she reported to the United Nations in October last year that she had met with the head of Myanamr's military government, Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing, in the capital Naypyitaw. On Wednesday, Bishop met with Foreign Minister Than Swe and other officials at a temporary tented area outside of the ministry’s damaged building in the capital Naypyitaw, which was hard hit by the 7.7 magnitude quake on March 28, Myanmar's MRTV state television said.

The earthquake caused significant damage to six regions and states, leaving many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaging roads and bridges, exacerbating hardships caused by the Southeast Asian nation's continuing civil war. Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for the military government, said late Wednesday that the quake’s death toll has reached 3,649, with 5,018 injured and 145 missing.

The earthquake destroyed 48,834 houses, 3,094 Buddhist monasteries and nunneries, 2,045 schools, 2,171 departmental offices and buildings, 148 bridges and 5,275 pagodas, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported, citing Vice Senior Gen. Soe Win, the vice chairman of the ruling military council.

Wednesday night’s MRTV report said Bishop and Myanmar officials discussed coordination between Myanmar and the United Nations on aid for quake-affected people, but did not detail further plans. Bishop, a former Australian foreign minister and current chancellor of the Australian National University, was appointed as Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ envoy to Myanmar in April last year.

Her appointment drew flak last month when a group opposed to military rule in Myanmar alleged that she had business links with Chinese companies with interests in Myanmar, amounting to a conflict of interest. She denied any wrongdoing. China, along with Russia, is one of the ruling military’s major backers, while much of the Western world shuns and sanctions the generals for toppling democracy and serious human rights abuses, including the brutal use of force in its war against the pro-democracy resistance and ethnic minority guerrillas.