North Korea will move more than 15,000 flood victims to the capital, state media reported Saturday, with leader Kim Jong Un stressing that relief efforts will be carried out “on a self-sufficient basis,” despite offers of assistance from other countries.
Last week, Pyongyang reported that record-breaking rains in late July killed an unspecified number of people, flooded homes and submerged large swathes of farmland in northern areas near China.
During a visit to flood-hit Uiju on Friday, Kim Jong Un said the government plans to house about 15,400 flood victims from the northern region at facilities in the capital until their damaged homes are rebuilt, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
The plan, which would include food and medical aid as well as educational support for thousands of displaced students, would be the country's “top priority,” Kim said.
Since news of the flood disaster emerged, offers of international support have poured in, including from South Korea, which has offered humanitarian aid through the Korean Red Cross despite strained relations between the two countries.
According to Pyongyang, Moscow also made a similar offer, while the news agency Yonhap in Seoul reported that China and the United Nations (UN) Children's Fund expressed their readiness to provide assistance.
However, Kim said Friday that the country's recovery efforts would be “completely based on self-reliance,” according to KCNA.
However, he expressed “gratitude to various countries and international organizations for their offers of humanitarian assistance,” the report said.
South Korean media reported that the number of dead and missing in North Korea could reach 1,500, but Kim on Friday dismissed the reports as a “serious provocation” and “an insult to the flood-hit people who are safe and healthy.”
Natural disasters tend to have a disproportionate impact on this isolated and impoverished country due to its weak infrastructure, while deforestation has made it vulnerable to flooding.
Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest point in years, with North Korea recently announcing the deployment of 250 ballistic missile launchers near its southern border. (ah/ft)
