Seoul | North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered 12,000 members of his ruling Pyongyang-based party to help two rural provinces recover from the damage caused by a severe typhoon, he said. indicated Sunday the official agency KCNA.
While a new hurricane is expected on the Korean peninsula on Tuesday, the country’s eastern coast is experiencing flooding and extensive damage from the torrential rains that accompanied the passage of violent Typhoon Maysak at the start of the week as well as previous ones. storms.
Natural disasters generally cause more damage in North Korea than in South Korea, in particular because of the fragility of North Korean infrastructure. The country is also very vulnerable to the risk of flooding due to deforestation.
More than a thousand homes were destroyed by Typhoon Maysak and many public buildings and farmland were flooded in North and South Hamgyong provinces, according to KCNA.
On Saturday, Mr. Kim went to the scene to see the damage and organized a meeting on the relief operations, the same source said.
He also sacked the chairman of the party committee of South Hamgyong province, KCNA said.
Photos published on Sunday by the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun show him discussing the situation with officials, standing in front of destroyed houses and trees lying on the ground.
In a two-page handwritten open letter to members of the ruling Labor Party, the leader announced that around 12,000 party members, based in Pyongyang, will be sent to these two provinces.
Their mission will be to participate in operations to help this region recover from the damage. He set October 10 as the deadline, the 75th anniversary of the founding of the ruling party.
“We cannot let the people of the southern and northern provinces of Hamgyong, who have just suffered further damage, celebrate this anniversary homeless,” Kim Jong-Un wrote.
He described the situation as “urgent”, requiring to be “managed without waiting a single moment”.
The newspaper does not specify the number of people who were injured, missing or died.
In 2016, at least 138 North Koreans died in floods caused by torrential rains, according to the United Nations.
In the summer of 2012, more than 160 people were killed by heavy rains.