Recent torrential rain and a typhoon in North Korea have killed 119 people, made more than 84,000 homeless and destroyed some 46,000 hectares of crops, the official news agency said yesterday.
It is now feared that the rains and typhoon that led to floods in many parts of the impoverished country will deal a severe blow to North Korea’s already malfunctioning economy and exacerbate its serious food shortages.
“Downpours swept some east and west coastal areas of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on July 29th-30th, leaving 31 people dead and 16 missing,” the KCNA news agency said yesterday.
This was in addition to the damage KCNA previously reported as resulting from about a week of heavy rainfall and floods earlier in July, which led to 88 deaths and left thousands left homeless.
Since the mid-1990s, North Korea’s farm sector has frequently been devastated by floods and drought. The floods could weigh on efforts by the new leader Kim Jong-un to buoy the moribund economy. – (Reuters)