The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) authorities have indicated flooding may have left up to 300,000 people homeless, a UN aid agency spokesman said yesterday, as the country warned of a poor harvest this year due to the heavy rain.
The DPRK, which has suffered chronic food shortages for years, said hundreds were dead or missing after flooding over the past several days that washed away thousands of structures and ruined cropland in the country's agricultural bread basket.
The North's official KCNA news agency quoted an agricultural ministry official as saying yesterday the damage to farm crops was heavier than in previous floods, with more than 11 percent of paddy and maize fields submerged, buried or swept away.
"Unprecedented torrential rains have poured down in the DPRK for days in succession from August 7, throwing a shadow over (the) prospect of the agricultural production," the agency said.
"It is hard to expect a high grain output owing to the uninterrupted rainstorms at the most important time for the growth of crops in the country."
Paul Risley, Asia spokesman for the UN World Food Program, said a UN assessment team has visited one flood-hit area near Pyongyang, and added that the DPRK 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.
DPRK officials who met the assessment team said they believed that 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.
KCNA said North Hwanghae Province, south of its capital, was hit the hardest, with pumping stations, agricultural structures and waterways destroyed. It added its government was taking measures against the flood damage.
In New York on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, from the Republic of Korea (ROK), promised at a meeting with DPRK Ambassador Pak Gil Yon that the world body would do all it could to help.
Source: China Daily/agencies
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