3,000 dead and missing after N Korea floods(roads railways detroyed)

SEOUL: Nearly 3,000 North Koreans were believed dead or missing in floods and landslides after torrential rains hit the impoverished country, a respected South Korean human rights group said yesterday.

Monsoon downpours caused much more damage than the secretive North’s state media have claimed, said Good Friends, an independent rights group that in the past has provided accurate information about the isolated communist country.

“North Korea has suffered really severe damage from recent rains, with nearly 3,000 people known to have been recorded dead or missing,” the group said in a statement.

“Damage and casualties are far heavier than known so far to the outside world,” it said.

Lee Seung-Yong, a Good Friends activist, refused to say how the group obtained information on North Korea’s rain damage. “We are collecting data from various sources,” he said.

North Korea was lashed by a typhoon on July 10, followed by three days of heavy monsoon rains.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said last week the rains had left hundreds of people dead or missing, with agricultural and other sectors of the country’s economy badly damaged.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies had said on Tuesday that nearly 250 people were dead or missing in the disaster.

That figure was based on government statistics provided to the International Red Cross, said Hope Weiner, an official with the federation’s East Asia regional office in Beijing.

The federation said the worst natural disaster to hit the impoverished country in four years swept away a vast area of arable land, left nearly 17,000 families and totally or partially destroyed 23,400 houses.

Good Friends said North Korea had imposed a temporary ban on unnecessary domestic trips, with roads and railways cut off in many areas.

The centre of Pyongyang was also partly flooded for the first time in 16 years, it said.

“The rain caused the Taedong river to flood for the first time in 16 years,” it said. The river runs along the central section of Pyongyang. – AFP

Sorry, the above article is from a different source.

Here is the real one:

Almost 3,000 believed dead, missing in NKorea floods

Wednesday July 26, 01:08 PM

SEOUL (AFP) - Nearly 3,000 North Koreans were believed dead or missing in floods and landslides after torrential rains hit the impoverished country, a respected South Korean human rights group has said.

Monsoon downpours caused much more damage than the secretive North's state media have claimed, said Good Friends, an independent rights group which in the past has provided accurate information about the isolated communist country.

"North Korea has suffered really severe damage from recent

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rains, with nearly 3,000 people known to have been recorded dead or missing," the group said in a statement Wednesday.

"Damage and casualties are far heavier than known so far to the outside world," it said.

Lee Seung-Yong, a Good Friends activist, refused to say how the group obtained information on North Korea's rain damage. "We are collecting data from various sources," he said.

North Korea was lashed by a typhoon on July 10, followed by three days of heavy monsoon rains.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said last week the rains had left hundreds of people dead or missing, with agricultural and other sectors of the country's economy badly damaged.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Tuesday that nearly 250 people were dead or missing in the disaster.

That figure was based on government statistics provided to the International Red Cross, said Hope Weiner, an official with the federation's East Asia regional office in Beijing.

The federation said the worst natural disaster to hit the impoverished country in four years swept away a vast area of arable land, left nearly 17,000 families and totally or partially destroyed 23,400 houses.

Good Friends said North Korea had imposed a temporary ban on unnecessary domestic trips, with roads and railways cut off in many areas.

The center of Pyongyang was also partly flooded for the first time in 16 years, it said.

"The rain caused the Taedong river to flood for the first time in 16 years," it said. The river runs along the central section of Pyongyang.

Meanwhile, North Korea's two northeastern provinces were hit by a prolonged drought this year, it said.

Damage to the harvest across North Korea sparked concerns that its chronic food shortages may worsen again this year, the group said.

North Korea has relied on emergency shipments from the the UN's World Food Program (WFP) to feed one-third of its population since being hit by a series of natural diasters in the mid-1990s.

But it stopped accepting UN food aid late last year and asked for development assistance instead, citing better harvests and aid from China and South Korea.

However, South Korea earlier this month angrily rejected a North Korean request for rice aid after Pyongang launched a series of missile tests that earned it international condemnation.

"North Korea's food shortages are getting worse due to the suspension of humanitarian aid from South Korea and tensions" over its missile tests, Good Friends said.

Famine may hit the country again this year, it said.

Though brainwashed I still believe that the vast majority of North Koreans are good people like the majority everywhere. I just fail to understand why a general that has traveled to say China and Russia doesn't use his army to overthrow this gulag.

Oh I agree with you 100 percent. The North Korean people have been subjected to the longest perpetual and continuous torture of any other society on the planet (to the best of my knowledge), Comrade Chia Pet is the final (and hopefully last) dynastic tyrant which used the Communist manifesto to justify his rule, backed up with brute force.

I hold our U.N. Ambassador John Bolton in the highest regard, I would vote for him for President in a heartbeat, and I would dearly love to see that man stand up in the United Nations and produce satellite imaging of North Korea at night (dark, while the South and the surrounding areas are full of lights), in addition to the rare (but available) photographs of North Koreans who have been imprisoned, tortured and killed (even whole families), and bring the North Korean defectors who have told of such horrors right to the pulpit of the U.N., to testify of Pyongyang's utter disregard for any sort of human decency, and to call upon the United Nations to condemn North Korea and to authorize the liberation of the North Korean people.

Oh wait, the United States would have to belong to an actual organization with a moral backbone and integrity for that to actually happen after such a presentation by Ambassador Bolton.

Never mind, I guess we'll just have to nuke Comrade Chia Pet and let the chips fall where they may, with apologies to innocent victims who will doubtless be too close to the detonation.

The DPRK immediated counterfited thousands of debit cards for distribution to gloriously rescue and aid those that walk the shining path of Socialist purity.

Dear leader Kim ordered that if there was any food, beer, sneakers or boom boxes available at any time in the future, the juche way is to allow the people to rise up out of the waters and share in the goods on an equal basis.

Recently married, the masterful genius, Kim Jon Il, sacrificed honeymoon bliss to view the area on TV in his revolutionary fortress.

Kim Jong Il gave a terse warning to anti-social elements and foreign powers to stop raining on his parade, stating "If my hairel srides off my head, you enemies of revorution be prenty smashed and will wash down river as so much frotsom and jetsom."

His new wife, had few words except to say, "Kim ruv missirle launchie quickie, brow up and far down."

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