Recent rains in North Korea flooded thousands of houses and vast farmland, state media says

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The recent heavy rains in northwestern North Korea flooded thousands of houses and a vast extent of farmland and left many residents homeless and living in makeshift tents, North Korea’s state media reported Wednesday.

North Korea earlier said more than 5,000 people stranded in Sinuiju city and Uiju town were rescued by airlift and other evacuation work after Saturday’s rains caused a river on the Chinese border to swell. But it hadn’t mentioned any specific damage, or said if there were any casualties.

North Korea is prone to flooding from heavy summer rains because of poor drainage, deforestation and dilapidated infrastructure.

The official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday that about 4,100 houses, 3,000 hectares (about 7,410 acres) of agricultural fields and numerous public buildings, roads and railways in Sinuiju and Uiju were flooded.

It said about 150 people in nearby Jagang province had also been isolated due to a separate river flooding there, but they were all evacuated to safety by military helicopters.

In an emergency Politiburo meeting presided in Sinuiju, leader Kim Jong Un asked authorities to “strictly punish” those who he said neglected their responsibilities for disaster prevention and caused “even the casualty that can not be allowed,” according to KCNA.

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The report didn’t say whether “the casualty” involved just a single person as it was written literally or multiple people. It also didn’t say whether any death has been reported.

KCNA said Politburo members later approved the appointments of new Workers’ Party secretaries in the flood-hit regions and a new public security minister. Kim earlier said North Korea’s emergency response agency and the Ministry of Public Security didn’t know the exact populations of the flood-battered areas, so the number of people rescued was much larger than expected.

In the Politiburo meeting, officials decided to build 4,400 new houses and strengthen embankments in Sinuiju and Uiju and restore damaged facilities in Jagang province, KCNA said.

Kim ordered urgent steps to supply flood victims with materials stockpiled for disaster relief and asked Politburo members to visit displaced people living in tents to console them and observe their living conditions, KCNA said.

State TV aired footage showing Kim and other officials riding on rubber boats to examine the scales of damages in the flood-ravaged areas. The footage showed many houses submerged in muddy waters, only their roofs visible.