Thousands Evacuated as Floods Hit North Korea, State Television Says

More than a thousand homes were damaged and about 5,000 people were evacuated in North Korea after flooding caused by heavy rains, the country’s public broadcaster reported, with swathes of farmland also flooded by the flood.

The TV report comes as the impoverished North admitted in June that it was tackling a food crisis, sounding alarm bells in a country with a dying agricultural sector that has long struggled for food.

Forecast from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations last month said North Korea faces a food shortage of around 860,000 tonnes this year, warning that the country could experience a “difficult lean period”.

Footage from Pyongyang’s state-run KCTV showed houses flooded to the roofs, along with what appeared to be damaged bridges.

The report states that “hundreds of hectares of farmland” were also submerged or lost in South Hamgyong Province, in addition to badly affected houses and roads, as the river dikes collapsed.

With the ground already saturated, further rains could cause more damage, Ri Yong Nam, deputy director of the Northern Meteorological Agency, told broadcaster Ri Yong Nam.

“We expect heavy rains through August 10 in various areas, centered around the east coast,” Ri said. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stressed that “all sectors and units” must take measures to prevent “natural disasters in advance,” the official Rodong Sinmun reported on Saturday.

Natural disasters tend to have a greater impact on the isolated country due to its weak infrastructure, while deforestation has made it vulnerable to flooding.

A series of typhoons last summer also triggered floods that damaged farmland and destroyed thousands of homes.

Kim said in June that the country’s food supply situation “was getting tense” due to the lingering damage from the typhoon.

North Korea is now under self-imposed isolation to protect itself against the coronavirus pandemic, and as a result trade with Beijing – its economic lifeline – has slowed.

The country suffered from a nationwide famine in the 1990s, which killed hundreds of thousands after the fall of the Soviet Union left it without crucial support.

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