Perilous
Times
Heavy Rains leaves massive trail of death and destruction in
North Korea
by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) July 31, 2011
Heavy rains that left 59 people dead in South Korea last week also
affected the North, flooding farmland, destroying bridges and
damaging roads and railways, Pyongyang's state media reported
Sunday.
Korean Central Television and Korean Central Broadcasting Station
said Chongdan County in South Hwanghae province had received 522
millimetres (more than 20 inches) of rain in 12 hours on Tuesday,
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
More than 14,200 hectares (35,000 acres) of farmland in the county
were flooded along with a further 10,200 hectares in Yonan County,
both in the west of the country, northwest of Seoul, it said.
It said that other counties were suffered heavy rain over the
weekend, and that in Yonan alone, 13 bridges were destroyed, while
roads and railways across the province were also damaged.
There was no word on casualties.
The floods will deepen concerns about North Korea's ability to
feed its people, who already face severe food shortages.
North Korea has relied heavily on international aid to feed its 24
million people since natural disasters and mismanagement
devastated its economy in the mid 1990s and Pyongyang has stepped
up appeals for food aid this year.
Last week's record rainfall in the South left at least 59 people
dead and more than 11,000 homeless. Power supply was cut to
130,000 houses nationwide, the disaster management agency said.
A total of 301.5 millimetres (just over 12 inches) of rain fell in
Seoul on Wednesday, the largest single-day rainfall in July since
records began in 1907.
Thousands of troops, police, firefighters and volunteers were
drafted in to help with the cleanup.