NKorea cites heavy losses, disease after floods*

SEOUL, Sept 21 (AFP) Sep 21, 2007

North Korea has been pummelled by heavy rains for a second time in a
month, state media said Friday, as the communist nation struggles to
contain disease outbreaks from earlier floods.

Rice and other crops were lost as rains spawned by Typhoon Wipha
inundated western provinces and the capital Pyongyang in the past three
days, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

It said the new downpours had caused "heavy losses in many sectors" of
the economy and some areas damaged by last month's floods had again been
hit.

Kim Un-Chol, deputy head of North Korea's Red Cross Society, said
diseases were spreading because of the damage to hospitals and other
infrastructure in the impoverished state caused by the August rains.

"What we are most concerned about now is disease outbreaks," he was
quoted as saying by Chosun Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in
Japan.

"Many patients are suffering from diarrhoea," Kim said, adding that
water treatment facilities had been contaminated.

Health facilities were "in miserable condition" with 562 hospitals
wrecked and 2,100 clinics damaged. "Drug stores were inundated and all
medicines there were soaked and ruined."

Last month's devastating floods, which relief agencies said were the
worst in a decade, left at least 600 people dead or missing.

Kim Un-Chol said more than 40,000 homes and 8,000 public buildings had
been destroyed along with 700 kilometres (435 miles) of road and 135
kilometres of rail lines.

North Korea was already reliant on international aid to help make up a
food shortfall of one million tonnes -- 20 percent of its needs -- even
before the August rains.

The latest rains this week, part of Typhoon Wipha which hit the east
coast of China, have aggravated the situation.

"Heavy rains pounded the western part of North Korea between Tuesday and
Thursday," an official from the Korea Meteorological Administration in
Seoul told AFP.

Up to 36.8 centimetres (14.7 inches) fell in the western provinces of
South Hwanghae, South Phyongan and North Hwanghae, including up to 20
centimetres in Sariwon City in one day.

Pyongyang, which is due to host only the second-ever inter-Korean summit
in early October, had nearly 27 centimetres of rain in the past two days.

Pyongyang's Chunggang TV said "hundreds of hectares" of crops were
flooded by swollen rivers.

"Rice and other crops waiting to be harvested were lost, as vast areas
of farm land were inundated again by downpours which fell even as the
country has yet to recover from damaged inflicted by the monsoon rains
last month," the station reported.

The clearing and terracing of hillsides to create more cropland is a
major reason for the periodic severe flooding.