Typhoon Maysak: Kim Jong-un orders 12,000 North Koreans to repair the damage
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during an official visit to one of the provinces heavily affected by Typhoon Maysak.
Korean Central News Agency / Korea News Service via AP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered 12,000 members of his ruling party on Sunday (September 6th) to come to the aid of two rural provinces, according to the official KCNA news agency.
These areas were heavily affected by the passage of Typhoon Maysak.
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While a new hurricane is expected this Tuesday, September 8 on the Korean peninsula, the eastern coast of the country is experiencing flooding and significant damage.
They were caused by the torrential rains that accompanied the passage of violent Typhoon Maysak earlier this week, as well as by previous storms.
Kim Jong-un in person to see the damage
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.
This Saturday, Kim Jong-un went there to see the damage and organized a meeting on the relief operations, said the same source.
He also dismissed the chairman of the party committee of South Hamgyong province, KCNA said.
Photos released this Sunday by ruling party newspaper
Rodong Sinmun
show him discussing the situation with officials, standing in front of destroyed houses and trees lying on the ground.
Rehabilitate before the anniversary of the founding of the party
In a two-page handwritten open letter to members of the ruling Labor Party, the North Korean leader announced that around 12,000 of them, based in Pyongyang, would be sent to the two stricken provinces.
Their mission will be to participate in operations aimed at helping the affected areas recover from the damage.
He set October 10 as the deadline, the 75th anniversary of the founding of the 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.
An "
urgent
"
situation
, requiring to be "
managed without waiting a single moment
", in his words.
The newspaper does not specify the number of people injured, missing or dead.
In 2016, at least 138 North Koreans died in flooding caused by torrential rains, according to the United Nations.
In the summer of 2012, more than 160 people were killed by heavy rains.
(With
AFP)
►
See also: North Korea: officials "severely" punished after Typhoon Maysak
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