North Korea: Typhoon Kills Dozens
By Ria Novosti
At least 88 people were killed and almost 63,000 made homeless by typhoon Khanun that caused downpours and floods in North Korea, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said on Saturday.
“The flood left 88 people dead and 134 injured throughout the country as of July 28,” Yonhap quoted North Korea’s Central News Agency (KCNA).
About 17,000 houses have been inundated or destroyed, making about 62,900 people homeless. Many public buildings, industrial objects and plots of farmland have also been destroyed.
Yonhap reported, citing analysts, that the announcement of the heavy death toll might “reflect the impoverished country’s expectations of external aid, according to analysts.”
UN spokesman Martin Nesirsky said last month that some 16 million people in North Korea suffer from hunger, malnutrition and economic losses.
The reclusive communist state has suffered from a chronic shortage of food and energy due to years of isolation over its nuclear program, mismanagement and natural disasters. North Korea has relied on international handouts since 1995 to help feed its more than 20 million people.
A murderous famine gripped North Korea in mid 1990s after unprecedented floods. The official death toll released by the North Korean Food Damage Rehabilitation Committee in 1999 stands at 220,000, while various sources, estimate that from two to three million people died between 1995 and 1998.
