Weekend floods and landslides across impoverished North Korea have left 47 people dead or missing and thousands homeless, state media reported Wednesday, raising the disaster death toll to at least 119.
The Korean Central News Agency said 31 fatalities were caused by landslides and lightning due to torrential rains Sunday-Monday, with a further 16 missing.
About 4,900 houses were destroyed or damaged and 8,530 others were submerged by floods triggered by the downpour, it said, leaving 21,370 people homeless.
Swathes of crops were also inundated or destroyed.
The KCNA had reported Saturday that a week of floods earlier in July had killed 88 people and left nearly 63,000 homeless.
With rugged terrain and outmoded agricultural practices, the country faces serious difficulties in feeding its 24 million people. Hundreds of thousands died during a famine in the mid to late-1990s.
A Red Cross team which visited areas hit by the recent floods said Wednesday the people badly needed drinking water, food and medical assistance.
UN officials have also toured badly-hit regions to assess aid needs.
The flooding represents a challenge for Kim Jong-Un, new leader of the nation which has grappled with severe food shortages since a famine in the 1990s killed hundreds of thousands.
Following an inspection visit last autumn, UN agencies estimated that three million people would need food aid this year even before the deluge.
Widespread deforestation, partly to clear land for crops, has made the impoverished nation increasingly prone to serious flooding which ends up washing away the harvest.-Interaksyon (August 01, 2012 10:31PM)
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