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Almost 3,000 believed dead, missing in NKorea: rights group
Seoul (AFP) Jul 26, 2006 Nearly 3,000 North Koreans were believed dead or missing following floods and landslides in the impoverished country, a respected South Korean human rights group said Wednesday. Monsoon rains caused much more damage than the secretive North's state media have claimed, said Good Friends, an independent rights group which in the past has provided accurate information about the isolated communist country. "North Korea has suffered really severe damage from recent rains, with nearly 3,000 people known to have been recorded dead or missing," the group said in a statement. "Damage and casualties are far heavier than known so far to the outside world," it said. Lee Seung-Yong, a Good Friends activist, refused to say how the group obtained information on North Korea's rain damage. "We are collecting data from various sources," he said. North Korea was lashed by a typhoon on July 10, followed by three days of heavy monsoon rains. The North's official Korean Central News Agency said last week the rains had left hundreds of people dead or missing, with agricultural and other sectors of the country's economy badly damaged. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Tuesday that nearly 250 people were dead or missing in the disaster. That figure was based on government statistics provided to the International Red Cross, said Hope Weiner, an official with the federation's East Asia regional office in Beijing. Damage to the harvest sparked concerns that North Korea's chronic food shortages may worsen again, it said. North Korea has relied on emergency shipments from the the UN's World Food Program (WFP) to feed one-third of its population since being hit by a series of natural diasters in the mid-1990s. But it stopped accepting UN food aid late last year and asked for development assistance instead, citing better harvests and aid from China and South Korea. However, South Korea earlier this month angrily rejected a North Korean request for rice aid after Pyongang launched a series of missile tests that earned it international condemnation. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Dirt, rocks and all the stuff we stand on firmly
Polluted Hong Kong mulls laws on idling engines
Hong Kong (AFP) Jul 25, 2006 Hong Kong motorists may face fines for leaving their engines idling under legislation being considered to help reduce the city's worsening pollution problem, the government said Tuesday. |
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