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Floods devastate N. Korean food supplies for second year
August 6, 1996
Web posted at: 9:50 a.m. EDT (1350 GMT)PYONGYANG, North Korea (CNN) -- North Korea is on the brink of catastrophe following another summer season of devastating floods, aid officials say.
July's rains dumped up to 30 inches of water in some districts, further depleting the country's already dwindling food supplies.
In much of North Korea there is just not enough to eat, said Geoff Dennis of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. He has been visiting the worst-hit communities.
With rice paddies swamped and communities flooded, many Koreans are combing parks and woods for anything edible to cook.
Last year's flooding -- the worst in a century -- wiped out half the North Korean harvest and left 130,000 people destitute. Relief workers were still struggling to provide for them when the new storms hit this summer.
The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Monday that the 1995 floods left more than 5 million people homeless and caused $15 billion in damage.
Robert Hauser, director of the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) in Pyongyang, said the 1996 floods destroyed 20 percent of the harvest.
"Considering North Korea's annual crop harvest is about five million tons, the damage is serious," Hauser said in an interview with the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun.
Last year's floods forced the isolationist communist country to ask for international aid, and millions of dollars in assistance poured into the country. KCNA said Monday that the country was grateful for the international assistance, and that many countries and agencies had already offered help this year.
The WFP has said it is expanding its emergency food aid operation, but is so far about $10 million short of its $25.9 million goal for aid to North Korea.
The Red Cross' Dennis said Tuesday that 116 people have died in the latest flooding, which has affected more than 3 million people in 117 towns and counties. North Korean authorities set the damage level at $1.7 billion, Dennis said.
Correspondent Peter Arnett andReuters contributed to this report.
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