North Korean authorities have indicated flooding may have left up to 300,000 people homeless, a UN aid agency spokesman said today, and crop losses may be severe in the impoverished state.
North Korea, which has suffered chronic food shortages for years, said flooding over the past several days has killed or left hundreds missing, washed away thousands of structures and ruined cropland in the country's agricultural bread basket.
Paul Risley, Asia spokesman for the UN World Food Programme, said a UN assessment team has visited one flood-hit area near Pyongyang, and added that North Korea is seeking international help.
"There was great concern that because these floods occurred during the period of pollination, that it is likely that these floods will have a very significant impact on the quantity of harvest," Risley said by telephone from Bangkok.
North Korean officials who met the assessment team said they believed that between 200,000 to 300,000 people have been dislocated by the floods and are in dire need of shelter and food, Risley said.
More UN assessment teams will visit other flood-ravaged areas in the coming days, he said.
"The primary need will be for emergency food rations, shelter material and medicine," Risley said.