SEOUL (KOREA) – The KCNA state news agency reported on Friday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has urged officials to provide food and shelter for those who lost their homes in floods.
Flooding was witnessed both in North and South Korea in recent days, because of heavy rain across the Korean peninsula. This has raised concerns about damage to North Korean crops.
Kim said in comments carried by KCNA, “It is of priority importance to quickly supply sleeping materials, daily commodities, medicines and other necessities to the flood-affected people to stabilise their living.”
Kim inspected a flood-hit part of North Hwanghae Province, on the border of South Korea.
More than 730 single-story houses were inundated, destroying 179 of them, and flooded rice-growing land, KCNA said.
Kim said the army’s aid would be sought for rehabilitation, on homes and roads. He urged architects to build 800 model houses in a farming village in Unpha County, which was badly hit, according to KCNA.
North Korea’s ruling party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun analysed a study that said rice and corn would be affected if the crops were submerged in water for just two or three days.
The newspaper said, “The fate of this year’s farming depends on how to protect farmland and crops from the flood.”
$10 million was donated by South Korea on Thursday to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) for its efforts to help North Korean children and women.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.