About 54,700 people were dead or missing and 2.5 million others homeless after last month's floods in North Korea, the worst in the country's history, an independent humanitarian group said Wednesday. The figure is a huge leap from the 10,000 dead or missing reported earlier by Good Friends, a South Korean group and long-term aid partner for North Korea.
Large tracts of farmland and entire villages are believed to have been washed away in floods and landslides, raising serious concerns over the impoverished country's ability to feed itself. "The number of victims, either dead or missing, totaled 54,700. There were some 2.5 million people left homeless," Good Friends said in a statement released here. The group described the damage, caused by a typhoon on July 10 followed by three days of heavy monsoon rains, as "the worst ever in North Korean flooding history".
It said the new tally was an approximate figure based on final counts in late July, without revealing its sources. The group also said 231 bridges were washed away along with large swathes of agricultural land. Immediate confirmation was not possible. North Korea's state media reported last month that at least "hundreds" were dead or missing in the flooding.
The group said North Korea's southwestern province of Hwanghaedo, the communist state's largest grain-producing area, was among those areas hardest hit. "Words are running around (in North Korea) that there will be 'nothing to harvest for this year'," the aid group said.
EDIT
http://www.terradaily.com/2006/060816141316.zt2vwvok.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
