About 54Â 700 people were left dead or missing and 2,5-million others homeless by last month’s devastating floods in North Korea, an independent South Korean humanitarian group said on Wednesday.
Good Friends, a long-term aid partner for North Korea, said the floods were the worst in the country’s history.
”The number of victims, either dead or missing, totalled 54Â 700. There were about 2,5-million people left homeless,” it said in a statement.
The figure is by far the highest given for the floods and landslides, which were said to have wiped out entire villages. Good Friends said early this month that 10Â 000 were believed dead or missing.
The group described the mid-July damage as ”the worst ever in North Korean flooding history”.
It said the new tally was an ”approximate” figure based on final counts in late July, without revealing its sources.
Good Friends added that 231 bridges were washed away along with vast tracks of farmland.
Immediate confirmation was not possible. North Korea’s state media reported last month that at least ”hundreds” were dead or missing in the flooding.
North Korea was lashed by a typhoon on July 10, followed by three days of heavy monsoon rains. — AFP
