Hundreds dead, up to 300,000 homeless in DPRK

    BEIJING, Aug. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Up to 300,000 people may be homeless in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), a U.N. aid agency spokesman said Wednesday, while state officials warned a poor harvest this year will be forthcoming because of the heavy rain.

    DPRK officials said hundreds were dead or missing after flooding over the past several days that washed away thousands of structures and ruined cropland in the country's agricultural bread basket.

    The official KCNA news agency quoted an agricultural ministry official as saying on Wednesday the damage to farm crops was heavier than in previous floods, with more than 11 percent of paddy and maize fields submerged, buried or swept away.

    "Unprecedented torrential rains have poured down in the DPRK for days in succession from Aug. 7, throwing a shadow over (the) prospect of the agricultural production," the agency said. "It is hard to expect a high grain output owing to the uninterrupted rainstorms at the most important time for the growth of crops in the country."

    Paul Risley, Asia spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program, said a U.N. assessment team has visited one flood-hit area near Pyongyang, and added the DPRK was seeking international help.

    "There was great concern that because these floods occurred during the period of pollination, that it is likely that these floods will have a very significant impact on the quantity of harvest," Risley said by telephone from Bangkok.

    North Korean officials who met the assessment team said they believed 200,000 to 300,000 people have been dislocated by the floods and are in dire need of shelter and food, Risley said.

    "The primary need will be for emergency food rations, shelter material and medicine," Risley said.

    (Agencies)