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North Korean Floods Displace Thousands

Anne ThomasAugust 16, 2007

300 are dead or missing and over 300,000 people have been displaced after continuous heavy rainfall across North Korea caused mass flooding. The Korean Central News Agency said some parts of the country had seen as much rain in a week as they usually saw in a year.

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A lamp standard stands on the flooded bank of the Taedong-gang River in Pyongyang
A lamp standard stands on the flooded bank of the Taedong-gang River in PyongyangImage: AP

The worst-hit parts of the country are South Hamgyong on the east coast and Kangwon near the border with South Korea. Many schools, hospitals and houses are damaged, as well as roads, bridges and railways.

Although experts say there is no fear of disease, there is some worry that the floods, the worst to hit the country in ten years, will create more food problems in the country, which has already suffered food shortages for years.

Over a tenth of the country's crops have reportedly been ravaged in the country's agricultural bread basket. Paddy and maize fields have been submerged, buried or swept away.

Not enough rice

In 2006, rice accounted for over half of the country's 4.8 million tonnes of harvested grain. But even when the harvest is good, international experts say, North Korea produces one million tonnes of food fewer than required to adequately feed the country's twenty-three million inhabitants.

10 percent of the population is estimated to have died during a famine which took hold of the country in the mid to late 1990s. However, experts do not think famine will strike again as a result of the severe flooding this week, although it is clear the country will be badly affected by the crop losses.

A research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul said a loss of 480,000 tonnes would be critical, and North Korea would need massive aid from South Korea and world organisations.

Emergency aid

The Red Cross has already distributed several hundred emergency kits. And the UN World Food Programme said it had submitted an emergency aid proposal to Pyongyang but was still waiting for a reply.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday that Seoul had prepared emergency items such as blankets, instant noodles and flour and medicine for its neighbour and the aid package would be announced on Friday.

However, the Unification Ministry in Seoul did not confirm the report, saying it had yet to receive a request for aid from Pyongyang.

North Korean state television has shown residents walking through waist-deep water in the streets of Pyongyang. Nevertheless, South Korea's government has said that a summit planned for the end of the month in the North Korean capital will go ahead as planned.