Aid groups consider emergency aid to flood-scarred North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea's neighbors and international aid agencies sought yesterday to help the impoverished country cope with floods that have decimated large swaths of farmland, endangering citizens already struggling with food shortages.

The North Korean government granted the World Food Program permission to send four emergency assessment teams Friday to areas struck by the disaster spawned by a week of heavy storms, providing a wider independent assessment of the damage.

North Korea's state media said yesterday that some 46,580 homes had been flooded or destroyed, displacing more than 300,000 people. North Korean officials earlier told international aid agencies that at least 200 people were dead or missing.

In the showcase capital of Pyongyang, where only the most loyal citizens are allowed to live in what is a relatively privileged life, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday that floods "claimed the lives of several people," without giving further details.

Up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) of water covered some streets, knocking out electricity and communication networks and leaving islets in the Taedong River running through the city "buried under silt beyond recognition," KCNA reported.

The heavy rain across the country has done "huge damage" to people's livelihoods and the nation's economy, the agency said. The rain in some parts of the country from the seven days of storms was almost as much as is usually recorded in a whole year, it said.

The series of unusually detailed official reports on the disaster were viewed as a public cry for help from the government, which usually is extremely reluctant to reveal any signs of internal trouble to the outside world.

"This may show a new attitude on the part of the government to work more cooperatively with international agencies and to be much more direct in seeking international assistance," WFP spokesman Paul Risley said.

WFP officials will travel Friday to 10 hard-hit counties to assess immediate needs, hoping to start emergency food aid using supplies already in the country as part of ongoing hunger relief efforts, Risley said.

He added that the disaster "does appear to be quite severe based on the approach" the North Korean government is taking.

However, North Korea has a history of overstating the effects of disasters to get aid.

The North has said the rains that began last week caused floods that swept away at least 11 percent of its rice and corn fields and devastated the country's infrastructure.

The weather in affected areas cleared somewhat yesterday, with the previous heavy downpours turning to light sporadic showers, said spokesman Chang Hyun-sik of the South's Korea Meteorological Association.

South Korea is considering offering emergency assistance including blankets, clothing, flour and medicine, the Unification Ministry said yesterday.

"From a humanitarian standpoint, the government plans to actively send relief aid in response to the current flood disaster," Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told a National Assembly hearing on an upcoming summit.

The leaders of the two Koreas are to meet later this month in Pyongyang for the second such summit since the peninsula was divided after World War II, with aid already expected to be a main topic of discussion.

The floods were not likely to have an impact on the summit itself, presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-sun said yesterday. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun is to travel by road for his Aug. 28-30 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang.

U.S.-based relief organization Mercy Corps said it plans to provide some US$500,000 (?372,365) in food, medicine, clothes and tools to North Korea after discussing the situation with its counterparts there.

Japan also said it would consider giving aid if asked by North Korea, but it does not yet have specific plans.

"We are looking at the situation regarding the flood in North Korea with sympathy," Kenichiro Sasae, Japan's envoy to talks on North Korea's nuclear program, told reporters in China on the sidelines of ongoing negotiations.