Flood damages 'tens of thousands' of buildings

Floods have damaged tens of thousands of buildings in northeastern Democratic People's Republic of Korea after the worst downpour in decades, state media said on Sunday, urging all soldiers and civilians to join a drive to help victims.

The report on the official KCNA news agency gave no death toll or exact figure for the damage.

A UN report last week, citing Pyongyang government data, said 60 people had been killed and over 44,000 were homeless along the Tumen River, which partially marks the border with China and Russia.

"Tens of thousands" of homes and public buildings collapsed and railways, roads, power supplies, factories and farmland have been destroyed or submerged, according to Sunday's report, citing the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party.

People in North Hamgyong province were suffering "great hardship", it added.

The main thrust of an ongoing nationwide 200-day mass mobilization campaign aimed at boosting the economy would be redirected to helping flood victims, it quoted the central committee as saying.

The state news agency, in a later report on Sunday, said the response had been impressive.

"All the people of the DPRK have turned out in a struggle for reconstruction of disaster areas in the northern part of North Hamgyong province recently hit hard by stormy heavy rainfalls," it said.

The DPRK is vulnerable to natural disasters, especially floods. At least 169 people were killed by a massive rainstorm in the summer of 2012.

Its territory is largely composed of bare mountains and hills that have been turned into terraced rice fields that allow rainwater to flow downhill unchecked.

(China Daily 09/12/2016 page11)