Flooding from heavy rain in North Korea has killed at least 133 people with 395 others missing and 107,000 fleeing their homes in the country's northern-most province, a U.N. agency said Monday.
More than 35,000 houses have been affected by floods, with 69 percent of them completely destroyed, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its report, adding that 8,700 schools and public buildings have been damaged.
A vast area of farmland has been inundated and at least 140,000 people need urgent assistance, it said.
Parts of the hardest-hit areas, Musan and Yonsa counties near the Chinese border, remain inaccessible.
OCHA said a group made up of U.N. agencies, international NGOs, the international Red Cross and North Korea's Red Cross had visited parts of the flood-stricken region last week to assess needs.
It said aid agencies have released material from stockpiles in the North such as food, shelter and kitchen kits, as well as water purification and health supplies.
North Korea’s government has mobilized brigades of soldiers from around the country to reopen roads and to distribute relief goods and building material to help victims of the flooding, which began on August 29 and was triggered by Typhoon Lionrock.
North Korea's KCNA news agency said Sunday that the northern part of the country was experiencing the worst "climatic phenomenon" in more than 70 years, causing "huge losses," and recovery work was underway.
Some material for this report came from AP, AFP and Reuters.
