The Chosun Shinbo, a newspaper published by an association of pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan, reported that “285mm of rain poured in Songchon, South Pyongan Province for three days, damaged 1,973 houses, 13 percent of the houses in the county. 616 houses among them were carried away by swollen water.”

“3,860 hectares of farmland was submerged. Tens of kilometers of roads and 11 bridges were completely destroyed and communications were also cut off for three days in the area. Torrential rains have left more serious damages in Yangdok and Shinyang in the province,” the paper added.

According to a recent newsletter of Good Friends, a North Korea support group, “Over 4,000 people have died or are missing due to the torrential rains which have been pouring since early July according to the number counted by North Korea.” The group also believes 1.3 to 1.5 million people were severely affected by the heavy rains.

The newsletter also says that floods devastated the nation. In Geumgang, Gangwon, hundreds of people were either killed or missing due to the collapse of a bank. Farmland also turned into mud fields. They are even unable to recover corpses floating on the water, according to a newsletter. Over 200 dead bodies were also found in Haeju, South Hwanghae. The newsletter says that 448mm of rain poured for 18 hours and caused thousands of people to be dead or missing in four counties alone.

“In particular, Shinyang, Maengsan, Yodok in Hamnam, Yangdoek in Pyeongnam, Geumgang region in Gangwon are suffering from an extensive damage. However, North Korea`s leader Kim Jong Il has not been showing himself up at all and the troops are too busy to help rehabilitation works as the military is in a semi-war state,” Rep. Chung Hyung-keun of the Grand National Party, said Thursday at the supreme council.

“I heard from high ranking officials of North Korea that over 3,400 people were either dead or missing,” an official of Love Coal, another North Korea support group, who visited Gaesong on July 28, 2006, said

Most of the flood victims are living in caves or straw-thatched huts which have been built in a hurry. Most of the rehabilitation works are done manually. Although epidemics are spreading across the damaged areas, people are hopeless without medicines.

Railway services, the most important means of transportation in North Korea, have been suspended due to the collapse of bridges and tunnels over which trains pass, virtually dissecting the eastern part of the country from the south. Experts believe that railway services are unlikely to be normalized within two months.

In the meanwhile, North Korea is having difficulties in delivering emergency rescue rice to the affected areas. The North Korean government has stopped issuing travel passes to control the movement of its people.

Famine is likely to follow as over 100,000 hectares of farmland was damaged. Although North Korea had a good harvest last year, they had to rely on over one million tons of food aid from the international community. However, support groups for North Korea prospect that, unless action is taken, North Korea will suffer from a serious food shortage this year, as both South Korea and China have turned their back on the North due to the North’s recent missile launches.