North Korea - Floods

Описание: (15 Aug 2007)
533053
APTN
nr Pyongyang - 15 Aug 2007
1. Pan from water rushing by to people standing on road damaged by floods
2. Flooded maize fields
3. Interior of house, flood water on floor of kitchen
STORYLINE:
Floods caused by rains have destroyed more than one-tenth of North Korea's farmland at the height of the impoverished country's growing season, official media reported on August 8th.
The damage has submerged, buried or washed away more than eleven-percent of rice and corn fields in the country, Korean Central News Agency reported, citing Agriculture Ministry official Ri Jae Hyon.
The North is especially susceptible to bad weather because of a vicious circle where people strip hillsides of natural vegetation to create more arable land to grow food, increasing the risk of floods and erosion.
The country has suffered from food shortages since the mid-1990s, due to natural disasters along with outdated farming methods and the loss of Pyongyang's Soviet benefactor.
Some 46-thousand hectares (113,666 acres) of fields in South Pyongan and South Hwanghae provinces were decimated in storms that began on August 7, KCNA said, noting those areas are the "main granaries of the country."
Another 37-thousand hectares (91,427 acres) were also destroyed in North Hwanghae province, the agency said.

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