N. Korea flooding victims get relief from agencies

SEOUL, South Korea — International relief agencies said Wednesday that they had begun delivering food and other assistance to tens of thousands of North Koreans who lost homes in some of the worst flooding to hit the country in years.

North Korea reported hundreds of people dead or missing but has not publicly appealed for outside help, instead relying on internal mobilization for relief efforts in the flooded provinces, near its northern border with China. The areas are among the poorest in North Korea.

Although some outside aid agencies have withdrawn from the country in recent years, a handful are still allowed to operate there.

The U.N. World Food Program said it had delivered emergency food assistance to more than 140,000 people.

Typhoon Lionrock unleashed torrential rains in North Korea in late August that set off floods. North Korea is prone to flooding because of deforestation — the result of people cutting down trees to fuel fires in their houses — and a tendency to turn every inch of arable land over to crops.

In some villages, “there was barely a building left unscathed,” said Chris Staines, an official from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, who recently returned from a trip to North Korea.

North Korea has confirmed to international aid agencies that 133 people have been killed and 395 remain missing. More than 35,500 houses and 8,700 schools and other buildings were damaged, as well as almost 40,000 acres of arable land, they said. On Wednesday, Central TV, the staterun broadcaster, said the floods were among the worst in decades and left 68,900 people without shelter.

Pyongyang is in the inconvenient position of having to turn to the international community for help — at the same time as the country is facing global condemnation after its fifth nuclear test last week.