North Korea reports heavy losses, disease after floods (Chia Head cannot dodge nature)

AFP ^ | 09/21/07

[TigerLikesRooster]

North Korea reports heavy losses, disease after floods

19 minutes ago

North Korea has been pummelled by heavy rains for a second time in a month, state media said Friday, as the communist nation struggles to contain disease outbreaks from earlier floods.

Rice and other crops were lost as rains spawned by Typhoon Wipha inundated western provinces and the capital Pyongyang in the past three days, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

It said the new downpours had caused "heavy losses in many sectors" of the economy and some areas damaged by last month's floods had again been hit.

Kim Un-Chol, deputy head of North Korea's Red Cross Society, said diseases were spreading because of the damage to hospitals and other infrastructure in the impoverished state caused by the August rains.

"What we are most concerned about now is disease outbreaks," he was quoted as saying by Chosun Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in Japan.

"Many patients are suffering from diarrhoea," Kim said, adding that water treatment facilities had been contaminated.

Health facilities were "in miserable condition" with 562 hospitals wrecked and 2,100 clinics damaged. "Drug stores were inundated and all medicines there were soaked and ruined."

Last month's devastating floods, which relief agencies said were the worst in a decade, left at least 600 people dead or missing.

Kim Un-Chol said more than 40,000 homes and 8,000 public buildings had been destroyed along with 700 kilometres (435 miles) of road and 135 kilometres of rail lines.

North Korea was already reliant on international aid to help make up a food shortfall of one million tonnes -- 20 percent of its needs -- even before the August rains.

The latest rains this week, part of Typhoon Wipha which hit the east coast of China, have aggravated the situation.

"Heavy rains pounded the western part of North Korea between Tuesday and Thursday," an official from the Korea Meteorological Administration in Seoul told AFP.

Up to 36.8 centimetres (14.7 inches) fell in the western provinces of South Hwanghae, South Phyongan and North Hwanghae, including up to 20 centimetres in Sariwon City in one day.

Pyongyang, which is due to host only the second-ever inter-Korean summit in early October, had nearly 27 centimetres of rain in the past two days.

Pyongyang's Chunggang TV said "hundreds of hectares" of crops were flooded by swollen rivers.

"Rice and other crops waiting to be harvested were lost, as vast areas of farm land were inundated again by downpours which fell even as the country has yet to recover from damaged inflicted by the monsoon rains last month," the station reported.

The clearing and terracing of hillsides to create more cropland is a major reason for the periodic severe flooding.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Chia Head dodged political and military pressure by outside powers, but he cannot dodge the deterioration of his health and mother Nature.

As I said before, this would be how his regime will fall. Not by conscious efforts of outsiders, but unexpected spontaneous events beyond the control of anybody, including Chia Head himself.

I hope the Almighty is finishing him soon.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[SevenofNine]

OH BOY Chia Pet be ronaey

[TexasRepublic]

Maybe their buddies the Syrians will help them out.