North Korea: 600 Dead or Missing From floods

UPDATE:

[q
url="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070825133344.zremptyw&show_article=1&catnum=0"]reported
Saturday that at least 600 people are dead or missing following
devastating floods that swept the country causing huge damage to all
sectors of the economy.

Official figures from the hardline communist state, quoted by relief agencies, earlier spoke of about 300 dead or missing.

But torrential rain, strong winds and landslides have doubled the total.

At least 600 are dead or missing and thousands injured, the official
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing figures from the Central
Statistics Bureau.

The agency, in its starkest assessment so far of the damage, said
downpours earlier this month "caused huge material losses to the
(country), creating unprecedented difficulties in people's living and
economic construction."

It said the homes of at least 240,000 families were totally or
partially destroyed or inundated, leaving at least 100,000 people
totally homeless and some 900,000 others flood-stricken.

Some 200,000 hectares of cropland was submerged, buried under silt or washed away just before the harvest, the agency said.

North Korea faced a food shortfall this year of one million tonnes,
or 20 percent of its needs, even before the floods. It relied on
international aid to help cover the shortfall.

KCNA said more than 8,000 public buildings, schools, health
facilities and nurseries were totally or partly destroyed, along with
more than 1,000 major production facilities since as mine complexes and
factories.

It reported "serious damage to all sectors of the national economy."

The state-directed economy shrank an estimated 1.1 percent last year
due partly to floods in 2006 and the international standoff over the
North's nuclear programme, South Korea's central bank reported this
month.

Relief agencies say this month's floods were the worst for a decade.
The clearing and terracing of hillsides to create more cropland is the
major reason for the periodic severe flooding.

The news agency reported severe damage to power plants and to coal mining, a crucial energy source.

It said dozens of substations were submerged and hydro-electric
plants destroyed or inundated. Nearly 300 pits were flooded and
hundreds of thousands of tons of coal were lost.

Some 100 stretches of road or railway line were washed away, and
landslides buried rail track in at least 200 places, KCNA reported.
More than 100 pumping stations for water or sewage were submerged.

"The army and people...are now turning out as one to recover from the damage with persevering will," it reported.

On Friday the UN's World Food Programme quoted the North's
agriculture ministry as saying floods had hit 437,000 people and
damaged more than one-fifth of the rice crop.

The WFP has announced an emergency programme to distribute food aid to 215,000 people for three months.

Separately, the UN's Office of Coordination of Humanitarian
Assistance in New York announced it would launch an appeal for
emergency funds of between 15 and 20 million dollars.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has announced an appeal for 5.5 million dollars.

And South Korea Friday announced new aid worth almost 40 million
dollars to help its neighbour rebuild. It has already begun trucking
emergency food and other aid worth 7.5 million dollars across the
heavily fortified frontier.

The National Defence Commission, chaired by state leader Kim
Jong-Il, is supervising relief operations, state media said this week
in a sign of the seriousness of the devastation.[/q]

If they admit to 600 can one only imagine how many may have really died this month.