Flash floods kill 40 people in North Korea: Red Cross

Seoul: Flash floods caused by heavy rain

killed 40 people in North Korea's northeastern border area

over the weekend, the International Federation of the Red

Cross said on Wednesday.

Particularly heavy rain accompanying Typhoon Goni battered

the Rason special economic zone where the borders of North

Korea, Russia and China converge, the IFRC said in a

statement.

The floods affected more than 11,000 people, with 153

houses completely destroyed and 849 houses damaged, it said,

adding its report was based on information provided by North

Korean authorities.

The federation said the North's Red Cross Society had

quickly sent an 80-member team to assist evacuation and hand

out non-food relief goods in cooperation with IFRC officials.

These included tarpaulins, family tents, cooking sets,

water containers, shelter toolkits, quilts, hygiene kits and

water purification tablets.

"More rain is forecast in (North Korea) and many

disaster-prone areas in other provinces are likely to be

affected," Khaled Masud Ahmed, a IFRC disaster management

delegate in North Korea, said in the statement.

The North's official KCNA news agency confirmed heavy rain

caused 40 "human casualties" in Rason and inundated large

swathes of farmland.

Up to 250 mm pummelled Rason from early Saturday to late

Sunday, destroying 5,240 houses, 99 public service buildings

and 51 railway sections, KCNA said.

In June the impoverished country said its main

rice-growing provinces had been badly damaged by what state

media described as the worst drought for a century.

Poor weather makes it harder for the communist state to

feed its 24 million people as it lacks advanced agricultural

technology and infrastructure.

Decades of deforestation and decrepit infrastructure have

left it vulnerable to floods.