North Korea has been pummeled by heavy rains for a second time in a month, state media said yesterday, as the 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 been hit again.
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 rains last month.
"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 diarrhea," 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 700km of road and 135km 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 rains last month. The latest rains this week 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 said.
Up to 36.8cm fell in several provinces including up to 20cm in Sariwon City in one day.
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