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SEOUL: An aid agency called Tuesday for a speedy international
relief operation after North Korea reported hundreds dead or missing
in floods and tens of thousands of homes destroyed.
The appeal came a day after the North’s
official Korean Central News Agency said downpours since August 7
had caused “huge human and material damage.”
As of August 12 they had had left hundreds of
people dead or missing and destroyed more than 30,000 houses for
over 63,300 families, KCNA said.
“A swift relief operation is needed to help
North Korea, which has been hit by severe floods,” said Erica Kang
of Good Friends, a South Korean aid agency specializing in aid to
the hardline communist state.
According to KCNA, at least 800 public
buildings, more than 540 bridges and sections of railway have been
destroyed, with tens of thousands of hectares of farmland
“inundated, buried under silt and washed away.”
The southern provinces of Kangwon and North
Hwanghae, which border South Korea, and South Hamgyong in the east,
were among the worst hit with thousands of families left homeless
after their houses were inundated, it added.
“The material damage so far is estimated to be
very big. This unceasing heavy rain destroyed the nation’s major
railways, roads and bridges, suspended power supply and cut off the
communications network.”
North Korea was pelted by between 30 and 67
centimeters (about one to two feet) of rain between August 7 and 12,
the agency said.
“North Korea’s rice belt along the west
coast has been battered by torrential rain, prompting concerns that
the country’s food shortages will be more serious,” Kang told
AFP, urging the North to seek international help and release more
specific data.
The reclusive state suffered famine in the mid-
to late 1990s, which killed hundreds of thousands. It still faces
persistent food shortages despite aid from South Korea and the
UN’s World Food Program.
The International Federation of Red Cross and
Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said its staff is on 24-hour alert to
monitor the damage.
“Intermittent rain which started August 5 has
caused serious flooding in many parts of the country, compounding
the difficulties normally anticipated in the annual rainy season of
July and August,” it said in a website bulletin dated Sunday.
The army has started to repair roads, bridges
and communication systems, the federation said.
--AFP
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