Heavy rains in North Korea have brought flooding that left hundreds dead or missing in North Korea and destroyed more than 30,000 homes, the country's state media reported today.
The Korean Central News Agency said the rain also flooded tens of thousands of acres of farmland in the country, which suffers from regular food shortages.
Hardest hit appeared to be Kangwon province, where KCNA said there were "huge casualties" and that homes for more than 20,000 families were partly or completely destroyed. The effects also reached to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
Damage from storms is often worsened in North Korea because its citizens denude vast hillsides to create more arable land to grow food, meaning natural vegetation that can stop erosion and landslides is no longer present.
More than two million people are estimated to have died in North Korea after a famine struck in the mid-1990s, which the government blamed on natural disasters but was also linked to outdated farming methods as well as the loss of the country's Soviet benefactor.
North Korea still relies on outside food aid to help feed its people.