Floods caused by torrential rain have washed away homes, roads, railways and farmland in North Korea, state media said yesterday.
“Water damage restoration work is underway in ... areas struck by continuing torrential rain,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The agency said work was underway to rebuild flood-hit homes, public buildings, bridges and roads.
Workers in the eastern province of South Hamkyong have restored all 110 irrigation channels that were destroyed, it said.
Work was also underway in the northwestern province of North Pyongan, across the border from China, and in Hwanghae Province in the southwest.
Railways and telephone lines in Jagang province to the east of North Pyongan have been restored, it said.
The report did not say exactly when the floods hit the nation.
Last Thursday KCNA reported widespread flood damage following torrential rain last month.
Some 5,560 houses were destroyed along with 360 public buildings and factories with 14,850 hectares of farmland “submerged, buried or washed away.”
In August 2007 the country’s worst floods in a decade left at least 600 people dead or missing.
China has suspended shipping and tourist boat traffic on the Yalu River, which forms part of its border with North Korea, over fears of flooding as authorities predict more rain.
The waterway in China’s northeast has seen more rain over the past two weeks than at any comparable time in recorded history, swelling it to critical levels and prompting the evacuation of thousands, Beijing’s Xinhua news agency said.
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