hankyoreh

Aug. 21. (Korean Central News Agency of North Korea and Yonhap News Agency)

By Kwon Hyeok-cheol

The North Korean city of Sinuiju was struck by severe flood damage when the lower course of the Amnok (Yalu) River overflowed due to heavy rainfall on the border region between North Korea and China.

In a report Sunday, North Korea’s Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) stated, “Road traffic was paralyzed and many individuals suffered damages when heavy rainfall in Northeast China on Thursday and Friday (reaching a maximum of 597mm) led to rapidly rising water levels on the Amnok River, causing water to instantaneously top the levee and rush toward downtown Sinuiju.”

The report also said, “Due to the heavy flow of water that struck before any measures could be taken, the base areas where damage was suffered, the villages of Sangdan, Hadan, and Taji in Sinuiju City, Soho village in Uiju County, and Ojok and Maksa Islands, were completely inundated, leaving only the rooftops of single-story structures visible.”

Sangdan and Hadan villages are subdivisions of Wihwa Island in the Amnok River north of Sinuiju, while Taji village is an island located below Wihwa Island. The agency did not disclose any information about fatalities.

China’s Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday that at Dandong, which sits opposite Sinuiju on the Amnok River, water was measured as passing at the rate of 28,000 cubic meters per second, making it the second largest flood in the Amnok River basin since the People‘s Republic of China was founded in 1949.

“I contacted people in Sinuiju, and they said that most of the houses and farmland there were underwater,” said a Dandong resident engaged in trade with North Korea. “There is an embankment on the Dandong side, but over in Suinju they have poor flood prevention devices like levees, so the damages are probably substantial.”

The Korea NGO Council for Cooperation with North Korea, an organization encompassing 56 groups engaged in humanitarian aid to North Korea, plans to meet with officials from North Korea’s National Reconciliation Council (NRC) in the Chinese city of Shenyang this week to discuss plans for aiding North Koreans affected by the flooding. Due to continuous heavy rains since last month, North Korea has suffered inundation in areas besides Sinuiju, including 5,500 homes and approximate 146,771,600 square meters of farmland. The parties initially planned to meet on Aug. 22 and 23, but the NRC requested a postponement due to internal factors. If the meeting does take place, it will be the first inter-Korean contact since the May 24 measures that fully suspended all exchange and trade with North Korea in the wake of the Cheonan sinking.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that former North Korean Prime Minister Pak Pong-ju, who lost his seat due to party and military objections after his attempt to pursue “economic reforms” in North Korea in the early to mid-2000s, was reinstated as a first vice minister of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

In a report Saturday on a briefing session held at Pyongyang’s People’s Palace of Culture on Friday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of North Korea’s top restaurant Okryukwan, which is famed for its Pyongyang-style naengmyeon noodles, North Korea’s Korean Central Broadcating Station stated, “Pak Pong-ju, a first vice minister in the Workers’ Party of Korea(WPK) Central Committee, was in attendance.”

The report didn’t name the department to which Pak was appointed, but the only specialized offices in economic affairs under the Central Committee are the planning and finance department and the light industry department.

On Aug. 15, Japan’s Mainichi Daily News quoted “multiple sources on North Korea” as saying that Pak had risen to the status of second-in-command at the light industry department, whose minister is Kim Kyong-hui, wife of National Defense Commission (NDC) Vice Chairman Jang Song-taek and younger sister of NDC Chairman Kim Jong-il.

The confirmation of Pak’s rehabilitated status by North Korean media signifies a noteworthy trend in terms of changes in North Korean economic policy, as it comes on the heels of North Korea’s failed currency reforms on Nov. 30 of last year and the subsequent replacement of WPK planning and finance department head Pak Nam-gi, who led the effort at the working level. Pak Pong-ju is known as a “reform-oriented” economic expert who is aware of the situation on the scene, while Pak Nam-gi was known as a “socialist planned economy expert.”

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