hankyoreh

By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter
An estimated 570 people lost their lives or disappeared in recent heavy rains and flooding in North Korea. The United Nations announced it would send 336 tons of grain in emergency aid.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA, North Korea’s official news agency) reported on August 4 that a total of 169 people were killed and roughly 400 people were unaccounted for following a typhoon, heavy rains, and flooding in North Korea between late June and late July. The agency also reported 144 injuries from the severe weather.
Some 8,600 homes were destroyed and another 43,770 inundated in the provinces of North and South Pyongyang, Chagang, and North and South Hamgyeong, with 212,200 people made homeless, the agency said.
An estimated 64,700ha of farmland was lost, buried, or flooded. North Pyongan suffered the worst damage, with roughly 23,200ha affected, followed by South Pyongan (21,720 ha), South Hamgyeong (5,620 ha), and North Hamgyong (7,160 ha).
Around 1,400 educational and public health institutions and production facilities, totaling 260,650m2 in area, were either destroyed or flooded.
Voice of America reported on August 4 that the UN World Food Programme plans to send 336 tons of grain in emergency aid to North Korea following the recent flooding.
In an email to VOA, Nanna Skau, the WFP’s North Korea spokeswoman, explained that 336 tons of grain would be provided at Pyongyang’s request to 16 counties were damage was especially severe.
Skau added that the aid would be enough to supply 400 grams per day for two weeks to 60,000 people.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said Sunday that no aid from Seoul would be forthcoming, “as there has been no change at all in North Korea’s position on the tourist shooting death at Mt. Kumgang or the attacks on the Cheonan warship and Yeonpyeong Island.”
　
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