54,700 Dead, Missing in N. Korea
Pastor Dale Morgan
54,700 Dead, Missing in N. Korea*
By KWANG-TAE KIM
The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 16, 2006; 8:49 AM
SEOUL, South Korea -- A South Korean aid group claimed Wednesday that
massive floods in North Korea last month left about 54,700 people dead
or missing and some 2.5 million homeless. The figure is by far the
highest toll reported from floods that hit the impoverished communist
country in mid-July.
The Seoul-based private aid agency Good Friends claimed it has "many
sources" inside North Korea but didn't say where it obtained the
information, which could not be independently confirmed because the
North tightly controls media and information.
Good Friends' previous reports of activities inside the isolated country
have been confirmed by South Korean government sources, although some of
the aid group's figures have been disputed.
North Korea's official media have reported that "hundreds" were killed
in the floods, without giving specific numbers.
Choson Sinbo, a newspaper published by a pro-North Korean association
linked to the North, said this month that the floods killed at least 549
people and left 295 others missing.
Officials with South Korea's Red Cross and Unification Ministry, North
Korea's economic cooperation office in Beijing and other agencies could
not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
Representatives of Good Friends refused to elaborate on their report,
saying they feared their sources would face government reprisal.
The agency said the floods destroyed more than 230 bridges and inundated
hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, further straining the
North's ability to feed its population.
North Korea has relied on foreign food handouts since the mid-1990s,
when famine caused by natural disasters and decades of mismanagement is
believed to have killed up to 2 million people.
"Food prices are skyrocketing as food distribution has become nearly
impossible" due to the floods, the agency said.
The agency also claimed the North, to curb possible unrest, prevented
those left homeless from traveling.
A South Korean citizens' group said last week that North Korea had
requested help from the South to cope with the devastation from the floods.