N. Korea says no flood damage yet this summer

MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea, Aug. 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korea did not suffer any
major flood damage from summer's torrential downpours, a Pyongyang official said
at inter-Korean talks on Friday, suggesting the fall harvest could be good this
year.

North Korean media have since July sporadically reported heavy rains that also
hit lower parts of South Korea, but there has been no mention of flood damage or
flood-related deaths.
"We asked the North if there was any flood damage (in the monsoon season), and
they said there wasn't," Kim Young-chel, secretary general of South Korean Red
Cross Society and chief delegate to the three-day talks, told pool reporters.
Kim and his North Korean counterpart held talks at the North's Mount Kumgang
resort and agreed to hold reunions next month for families separated by the
1950-53 Korean War. The last reunion was held nearly two years ago.
Seasonal floods are common in North Korea, where decades of deforestation have
left the country without the natural protection of tree cover.
After downpours in July 2006, 844 people were reported dead or missing in North
Korea and 28,000 households were affected. In 2007, heavy rains left about 500
people dead or missing and about 900,000 were affected by floods, according to
North Korean and U.N. reports.
Unusually mild weather last year allowed North Korea's grain harvest to expand to
4.3 million tons, compared with 4 million tons in 2007, according to South Korean
government data.
South Korea still expects North Korea will be short by 1 million tons of the
amount of food it needs for its 24 million people.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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