Hundreds of people were dead or missing in North Korea after floods and landslides caused by heavy rains destroyed tens of thousands of houses and buildings, official media said on Friday.
The rains, brought by a powerful typhoon which lashed the Korean peninsula on July 10, also damaged infrastructure and wrecked vast swathes of farmland, a serious blow to the communist country’s precarious food supplies.
”The heavy rains have left hundreds of people dead or missing across the country,” said the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), in its first acknowledgement of the incident.
”Tens of thousands of houses and buildings were damaged, destroyed or inundated. Bridges, roads and railways were also damaged in hundreds of different places,” it said.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies previously reported that whole villages in remote areas had been swept away and essential public services, such as health care clinics, destroyed.
KCNA said many of the casualties were in the south-western province of South Pyongan, where 6 200 private houses and 490 public buildings were damaged or destroyed.
Roads, bridges and railways were also ”severely damaged” and electricity and telecommunication lines were cut off in the province, it said.
The International Red Cross said in Geneva that the downpours triggered ”land slippage from hillsides denuded by intensive agricultural production” in South Pyongan, North Hwanghe and Kangwon provinces.
The North Korean Red Cross had sent blankets and other essential items to almost 10 000 families whose homes were completely destroyed in the three provinces.
The International Red Cross also said an international emergency appeal was being considered after the damage to the harvest sparked concerns that North Korea’s chronic food shortages may worsen again.
North Korea has been relying on international food handouts, especially those from South Korea and China, since being hit by a series of natural disasters in the mid-1990s.
But South Korea shelved this year’s shipment of half-a-million tons of rice after North Korea test-fired seven missiles on July 5, prompting international condemnation.
North Korea then scrapped cross-border family reunions on the divided peninsula, accusing South Korea of siding with its Western allies in the stand-off over the missile launches.
The rains also triggered landslides and flash floods in South Korea, leaving 50 people dead or missing. — AFP
