SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday that 15 people were missing in the northern city of Hoeryong and thousands were left homeless by flooding caused by heavy rain in recent days.

The official KCNA news agency said flooding of the Tumen river, which forms a border with China, had damaged or destroyed 17,180 houses, and 44,000 people were left homeless in North Hamgyong province.

Widespread deforestation makes North Korea prone to flooding. </s> TOKYO — Floods that devastated North Korea last month are turning out to be worse than initially feared, with more than 100,000 people left homeless, according to aid workers who visited the area last week.

That puts Pyongyang in the inconvenient position of having to turn to the international community for help — at the same time North Korea is facing global condemnation after its nuclear test last week.

“The effects of this flooding will be even more dramatic and devastating than initially thought,” said Chris Staines, the head of the Pyongyang office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “The people there are in a very desperate situation.”

Staines was part of a group of 22 international and local staffers from 13 aid agencies stationed in Pyongyang who last week visited the northern city of Hoeryong, across the Tumen River from China.

Floods ripped through the area Aug. 30 as Typhoon Lionrock lashed northeast Asia. North Korean authorities at first estimated that 44,000 people had been displaced between Onsong, in the north, and Musan, a major mining center 100 miles downriver.

The North Korean government has confirmed that 133 people have been killed and 395 are missing as a result of the floods, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Sunday.

At least 140,000 people are in urgent need of assistance, the OCHA said in a statement, including an estimated 100,000 people who have been displaced. Water supplies to about 600,000 people have been cut.

“My impression was that this was a much worse disaster than the statistics indicate,” Staines said by Skype from Pyongyang. “The damage is very extensive, and there is clear evidence that the floodwaters were not only very high — you can see the watermarks above the window frames — but also moving very rapidly in some places.”

Authorities took the aid workers, some of whom represented U.N. agencies, to destroyed medical clinics and to a water pumping station near Hoeryong that was wiped out, leaving 50,000 people without water. Kitchen gardens and household livestock — chickens, ducks, pigs — also were washed away, Staines said.

“These households have clearly lost everything,” he said.

In some areas, communication links remain cut and the roads are still impassable.

North Korean authorities initially asked aid agencies to help with relief efforts using their existing budgets and supplies. But now officials plan to launch international appeals for donations.

Their timing could hardly be worse. On Friday, Kim Jong Un ordered North Korea’s fifth nuclear test and its largest yet, triggering international calls for more sanctions to punish the regime.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry warned Monday that Pyongyang could order another nuclear test at any time. The South’s Yonhap News Agency reported, citing unnamed government sources, that the North has completed preparations for a sixth test.

With so many other crises around the world competing for donations, agencies operating in North Korea — which include the United Nations’ World Food Program and UNICEF, as well as a handful of European organizations — have confronted difficulty raising money for their projects for several years and have had to scale back operations.

North Korea said the flooding was caused by the “strongest storm and heaviest downpour” since World War II. The government redirected people involved in a “200-day campaign” intended to increase production to instead help with the relief efforts.

Soldiers were sent to the disaster area Saturday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. Workers on Ryomyong Street, an ambitious development in Pyongyang that is trumpeted in the state media on an almost daily basis, also were dispatched.

Tens of thousands of houses and public buildings collapsed, while railways and roads, along with factories and crops, were destroyed or submerged, KCNA reported.

North Korea is particularly prone to flooding because of deforestation — a result of people cutting down trees to fuel fires in their homes — and a tendency to turn every inch of arable land over to crops. Making matters worse, houses, particularly in the downtrodden northern areas, are often made of substandard, locally produced bricks.

Staines asked donor nations to remember that the flood has hurt regular people in North Korea.

“In the communities we visited, we were allowed to meet with local people, and we could see their spirit and their energy and their support for each other,” he said. “These are people who are doing the best they can. They’re just normal, everyday people.” </s> PYONGYANG: Severe flooding in North Korea has killed at least 76 people with another 75 missing, many of them children, the Red Cross said Thursday. Thousands of people have been left homeless after heavy rains triggered floods and landslides, toppling more than 800 buildings including houses, clinics and schools in North and South Hwanghae provinces, leaving Red Cross volunteers scrambling to find survivors. “Thousands have lost their homes and are in urgent need of health services, shelter, food, safe drinking water and sanitation,” said John Fleming of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies North Korea country office. </s> North Korea floods a 'major, complex disaster', Red Cross says

Updated

North Korea is experiencing a "major and complex disaster", according to the Red Cross, after floods killed scores of people and left more than 100,000 homeless and in need of urgent help.

The charity said rescue workers were struggling to reach stricken communities in the country's far north, where thousands have been left homeless and the risk of disease is looming.

"From what we saw, it is clear that this is a very major and complex disaster," head of the Pyongyang office of the International Federation of the Red Cross, Chris Staines, said after visiting the affected areas.

At least 133 people are known to have died after torrential rains triggered massive floods that tore through villages, devastating entire communities and washing away buildings.

Hundreds more are missing and 140,000 people are in urgent need of food and shelter.

"The floods came through with such force they destroyed everything in their path," Mr Staines said.

"People were salvaging whatever possessions they could from piles of debris that used to be their homes."

Some 24,000 houses have been totally destroyed and thousands more damaged, with the full extent of the disaster still emerging as rescue workers battle to reach areas that have been totally cut off, the Red Cross said.

Mr Staines said there was barely a building left unscathed in some villages they had visited on the outskirts of Hoeryong City, which lies on the Tumen River on North Korea's border with China.

"People displaced from the floods are now in a very difficult situation and there are real risks of secondary disasters, particularly relating to people's health," Mr Staines added.

At least 100,000 people in Hoeryong City do not have safe drinking water, with up to 600,000 people in the affected area facing disruptions to their water supply, the Red Cross said.

The disaster is set to worsen North Korea's already chronic food shortages, with about 40,000 hectares of farmland inundated just weeks before the local maize and rice crops were due to be harvested.

"Their loss is another disaster that will be felt in the coming weeks and months," the Red Cross warned.

The impoverished nation is vulnerable to natural disasters, especially floods, due partly to deforestation and poor infrastructure.

At least 169 people were killed by a massive rainstorm in the summer of 2012.

Major state resources are swallowed up by a missile and nuclear weapons programme Pyongyang says is essential to deter US aggression.

AFP

Topics: korea-democratic-peoples-republic-of

First posted </s> Flooding following heavy rain has killed 60 people and left over 44,000 homeless in North Korea, the United Nations said on Tuesday, after the country reported that a northeastern river suffered its worst-ever flood.

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Pyongyang said the Tumen river, which partially marks the border with China and Russia, experienced the biggest flood ever recorded due to a rainstorm that began four days earlier.

Nearby areas including Musan and Hoeryong were hard hit, with 60 dead and five percent of the population homeless, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

It cited data from the North’s government.

“Communication with and access to affected areas remains a challenge… immediate needs have been identified as emergency shelter, food, medication, water and sanitary items,” it said.

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Nearly 9,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged with 10,000 hectares (24,711 acres) of farmland flooded, it said, adding joint relief efforts involving the UN and the North were underway.

The North’s state media said Friday that 15 people were missing after over 17,000 houses were destroyed or damaged.

The impoverished nation is vulnerable to natural disasters, especially floods. At least 169 were killed by a massive rainstorm in the summer of 2012.

Its territory is largely composed of mountains and hills that have long been deforested for fuel or turned into terraced rice fields. This allows rainwater to flow downhill unchecked.

A series of floods and droughts was partially responsible for a famine that killed hundreds of thousands between 1994-98, with economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support exacerbating the situation. </s> SEOUL: Severe flooding in a North Korean border region has killed at least 133 people with another 395 missing and thousands of homes swept away, the UN says, after Pyongyang reported “great hardship” in the area.

Some 107,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the area along the Tumen River, the world body said in a statement received Monday which cited Pyongyang government figures.

The North’s official media has described the downpour which led to the floods near the northeastern border as the worst for decades, and said it brought severe hardship to residents.

It says a nationwide mass-mobilisation 200-day labour campaign intended to bolster the economy has been redirected to assist the flood victims.

The impoverished nation is vulnerable to natural disasters, especially floods, due partly to deforestation and poor infrastructure.

At least 169 people were killed by a massive rainstorm in the summer of 2012. </s> Flooding caused by torrential rains hit North Korea this week, leaving 15 people missing and thousands of others homeless, according to Pyongyang's state media.

The Tumen River, which serves as part of the border between China, Russia and North Korea, burst its banks in "the worst-ever flood" in the area, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said late Friday.

In the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, 15 people were missing in Hoeryong City and several counties including Musan, Yonsa and Onsong and part of the Rason special economic zone also suffered "serious damage".

More than 17,000 houses were destroyed or partly damaged, forcing 44,000 people to seek shelter elsewhere, KCNA said.

North Hamgyong Province received up to 32 centimetres (12 and a half inches) of rain between early Tuesday and mid-Friday, it said.

"Relentless campaigns are under way to stabilize people's livelihood and restore damaged properties", it said, adding that further assessments of the damage would continue.

North Korea is known for being vulnerable to natural disasters, especially floods.

Its territory is largely composed of mountains and hills that have long been deforested for fuel or turned into terraced rice fields, allowing rainwater to flow downhill unchecked, washing away top soil from agricultural fields.

A series of floods and droughts sparked a famine between 1994 and 1998 in the impoverished state, with economic mismanagement coupled with the loss of Soviet support exacerbating the situation. </s> Yet severe flooding in the country's northeast has resulted in a rare admission that all is not so well.

According to a report published Sunday by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) -- North Korea's official state media -- the country's northeast has been affected by the "heaviest downpour" since 1945, with "tens of thousands" of buildings destroyed and people left homeless and "suffering from great hardship."

Citing North Korean government data, the report described how heavy rains resulting from Typhoon Lionrock had triggered flooding in areas such as Musan and Yonsa counties and Hoeryong City in North Hamgyong province. So far, 133 people have been killed, 395 people are missing and 140,000 people are in "urgent need of assistance." </s> North Korea is experiencing a "major and complex disaster" the Red Cross has warned, after floods killed scores of people and left tens of thousands in need of urgent help.

Rescue workers are struggling to reach stricken communities in the country's far north, where thousands have been left homeless, and the risk of disease is looming.

"From what we saw, it is clear that this is a very major and complex disaster," said Chris Staines, who heads a Red Cross delegation in North Korea and has visited the affected areas.

At least 133 people are known to have died after torrential rains triggered massive floods that tore through villages, devastating entire communities and washing away buildings.

Hundreds more are missing and 140,000 people are in urgent need of food and shelter.

"The floods came through with such force, they destroyed everything in their path," Staines said.

"People were salvaging whatever possessions they could from piles of debris that used to be their homes."

Some 24,000 houses have been totally destroyed and thousands more damaged, with the full extent of the disaster still emerging as rescue workers battle to reach areas that have been totally cut off, the Red Cross said.

"There was barely a building left unscathed," in some villages they visited on the outskirts of Hoeryong City, Staines said.

"People displaced from the floods are now in a very difficult situation and there are real risks of secondary disasters, particularly relating to people's health," Staines added.

At least 100,000 people in Hoeryong City do not have safe drinking water, with up to 600,000 people in the affected area facing disruptions to their water supply, the Red Cross said.

The disaster is set to worsen North Korea's already chronic food shortages, with around 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres) of farmland inundated just weeks before the local maize and rice crops were due to be harvested.

"Their loss is another disaster that will be felt in the coming weeks and months," the Red Cross warned.

The impoverished nation is vulnerable to natural disasters, especially floods, due partly to deforestation and poor infrastructure.
North Korea says that at least fifteen people are missing and thousands left homeless in the city of Hoeryong after the Tumen River floods.