North Koreans Describe Devastation as Government Seeks International Help

North Koreans living along the Tumen River border with China on Tuesday described a hellish ordeal as the river rose swiftly, leaving many people scrambling for safety in a flood that has claimed at least 200 lives and devastated a wide swath of country’s poorest region.

“The floods came through with such force that the Tumen River, which borders China, swelled rapidly,” Dong Nam Kim, a North Korean defector and representative of the Free North Korea Global Network, told RFA’s Korean Service as he relayed descriptions of the disaster from inside the country.

“The water hit and destroyed villages in the Gangan Dong area in Hoeryong City,” he said. “Around 200 residents have been killed or are missing because of the rising flood water.”

The floods ripped through the area Aug. 30 as Typhoon Lionrock lashed Northeast Asia from from August 29 to September 2.

North Korean authorities at first estimated that 44,000 people had been displaced between Onsong County, in the north, and Musan County, a major mining center 100 miles downriver.

The North Korean government has confirmed that 133 people have been killed and 395 are missing as a result of the floods, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Sunday.

But Kim said the number of dead and missing were understated.

“About 400-500 households used to live in Gangan Dong, but that area was hit by the heaviest downpour, and now these households have clearly lost everything,” he said. “Nothing can be recovered. I asked about the expected casualties, and the sources said about 200 people have been killed or are missing.”

Survivors are being housed in tents and in the Hoeryong Stadium, Kim said.

Full story: rfa.org

Reported by Young Jung and Sunghui Moon for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Hyosun Kim. Written in English by Brooks Boliek