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Farmers transplant rice at a co-op farm in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: AP
AsiaEast Asia

North Korea braces for more rain as it evacuates 5,000 amid food crisis, Covid-19 pandemic

  • Over 1,000 homes were damaged, including some flooded up to their roofs, while swathes of farmland also inundated by the deluge, state media said
  • The rains come as the North is reeling from a food crisis, and trade with China has slowed to a trickle with the borders shut to keep out Covid-19
North Korea
Agence France-Presse
Reuters
Agence France-PresseandReuters
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has mobilised the military to carry out relief work in areas recently hit by heavy rains, state media said on Sunday, amid concerns over an economic crisis and food shortage.

More than a thousand homes were damaged and about 5,000 people were evacuated from floods, the country’s state broadcaster said, with swathes of farmland also inundated by the deluge.

Footage from Pyongyang’s state-run KCTV showed homes flooded up to their roofs, as well as what appeared to be damaged bridges.

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The report said “hundreds of hectares of farmland” were also submerged or lost in South Hamgyong Province, on top of the severely affected homes and roads, as river levees collapsed.

The ruling Worker’s Party’s Central Military Commission held a meeting of its chapter in the eastern province of South Hamgyong to discuss damage and recovery from the downpour, the official KCNA news agency said.

Kim did not attend the meeting but party officials conveyed his message that the military should kick off a relief campaign and provide necessary supplies in the region, KCNA said.

A flooded street in South Hamgyong Province, North Korea. Photo: KRT via APTV

Officials in South Hamgyong who met on Thursday discussed “emergency measures to promptly stabilise the living of people in the disaster-hit areas, further tightening emergency epidemic prevention work and minimising the damage to crops”, KCNA said

With the soil already saturated, further rains could cause more damage, Ri Yong Nam, the deputy head of the North’s meteorological agency, told KCTV.

“We expect heavy rain until the 10th of August in various regions, centring around the east coast area,” Ri said.

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Natural disasters tend to have a greater impact on North Korea due to its weak infrastructure, while deforestation has left it vulnerable to flooding.

The rains come as the impoverished North in June admitted it was tackling a food crisis, sounding the alarm in a country with a moribund agricultural sector that has long struggled to feed itself.

Last month, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization forecast said North Korea was facing a food shortage of around 860,000 tonnes this year, warning the country could experience a “harsh lean period”.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: KCNA via KNS / AFP

Kim said in June the country faced a “tense” food situation, citing the coronavirus pandemic and last year’s typhoons, and recently South Korea’s central bank said North Korea’s economy suffered its biggest contraction in 23 years in 2020.

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 to a trickle.

South Korean lawmakers said last week that North Korea needed some 1 million tonnes of rice, with military and emergency reserves running out.

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