According to state media on Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chastised “irresponsible” officials for not doing enough to stop damage from a tropical cyclone that raced through the Korean peninsula last week.
Early on Friday, Tropical Storm Khanun crossed North Korea, delivering torrential rains to the South after battering Japan and making a detour to the Korean peninsula.
Due to its poor infrastructure and isolation, the North often suffers more severe effects from natural catastrophes, and deforestation has made it more susceptible to flooding.
Kim stated the area experienced greater harm than other areas “entirely due to extremely chronic and irresponsible work attitude” of local officials, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), after touring flooded farmlands in Anbyon County in the country’s east.
“The officials of the region were insensitive to the state measures and took no measure and, as a result, the region suffered much damage than other regions,” the report cited Kim as saying.
As the storm approached the peninsula, the North carried out “a dynamic campaign to cope with disastrous abnormal climate” and called for measures to minimise damage to the country’s economic output.
Famine has occasionally affected the North; in the mid-1990s, estimates put the death toll at hundreds of thousands to millions.
In February, a high-level party meeting was conducted in the nation to discuss issues related to agriculture and food scarcity.
