Floods that devastated North Korea last month are turning out to be worse than initially feared, with more than 100,000 people left without a home. That puts Pyongyang in the inconvenient position of having to turn to the international community for help — at the same time as North Korea is facing global condemnation after its nuclear test last week. "The effects of this flooding will be even more dramatic and devastating than initially thought," said Chris Staines, the head of the Pyongyang office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. "The people there are in a very desperate situation." Staines was part of a group of 22 international and local staffers from 13 aid agencies stationed in Pyongyang who last week visited the northern city of Hoeryong, across the Tumen River from China. Floods ripped through the area Aug. 30 as Typhoon Lionrock lashed northeast Asia. North Korean authorities initially estimated that 44,000 people had been displaced between Onsong in the north and Musan, a major mining center 100 miles downriver. North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test. The North Korean government has confirmed that 133 people have been killed and 395 are missing as a result of the floods, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Sunday.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korea-defied-world-with-nuclear-test-now-it-seeks-aid-for-flood-disaster/2016/09/12/3e710483-476f-4f04-aae4-52af58064e91_story.html?utm_term=.faf52911a80d
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