N Korea storms leave many dead

North Korea says many people died and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed as torrential rains and a typhoon swept across parts of the country earlier this month.

In the first official comments about the floods, the North Korean News Agency, KCNA, said the damage caused by the storms was estimated at more than $6bn.

A regional torrential rain and typhoon in September in particular claimed human lives and inflicted enormous disasters upon different sectors

KCNA

A total of "125,000 dwelling houses were inundated or destroyed. 29,000 of them were completely demolished and thousands of them swept away."

The areas which suffered severely were the plains in North and South Hwanghae provinces.

KCNA added that about 1,360 km (1,019 miles) of roads, 1,930 bridges and 250 sections of railway had been swept away or destroyed in the storms.

The agency said that coal yards and mines were submerged and many production machines and facilities were destroyed by landslides.

North Korea had already been suffering from drought, which had led to a serious shortage of food after high temperatures of over 40C hit the rice paddies.

To compound the problem, tens of thousands of hectares of crops were washed away or damaged in the latest storms.

Southern aid

Last week, the World Food Programme estimated that North Korea needed about 200,000 tonnes of food to last until the end of the year.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who arrived on a visit to Japan on Friday, was expected to ask for financial aid to help its poor neighbour in the North.

Reports also said South Korea was preparing to ship 500,000 tonnes of Chinese corn to the North.

There were no details of who the Chinese suppliers were or when the deliveries would be made.

The two Koreas have been involved in diplomatic efforts to thaw the frozen relations between them following their 1950-53 conflict, which ended in an armed truce that is still in effect.