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DPRK

N.Korea leader Kim sends choppers for flood victims

23 Jul 2010 02:55:40 GMT

By Jack Kim

SEOUL, July 23 (Reuters) - Record rainfall has flooded farmland and residential areas in parts of destitute North Korea, with leader Kim Jong-il ordering army helicopters to rescue stranded residents, its official KCNA news agency said on Friday.

Lack of proper infrastructure in most areas outside the capital Pyongyang makes arable land and residential districts of North Korea vulnerable to water damage in times of heavy rains, which in turn hurts harvests and worsens food shortages.

Aid groups have said the North suffers chronic shortfalls of food by as much as 1 million tonnes a year, with traditional key donor countries such as South Korea and the United States having sharply cut contributions in the wake of the North's provocations.

"Leader Kim Jong-il acquainted himself with the situation in the affected areas and issued an order to a unit of the air force of the Korean People's Army for an emergency rescue operation," the North's KCNA news agency said.

Parts of the province outlying Pyongyang received more than 200 mm (7.9 inch) of rainfall over Wednesday and Thursday, stranding dozens of people in North Phyongan and South Hamgyong provinces, KCNA said.

Helicopters flew in to rescue 68 people from those regions, KCNA said.

"Officers and pilots of the air force of the KPA displayed the spirit of loving people in order to rescue one woman and two children who were not able to get aboard a helicopter," it said.

North Korea is under U.N. sanctions imposed after it defied warnings and conducted missile and nuclear tests. A series of misguided economic steps have deepened its woes, including a botched currency reform late last year that reportedly incited public discontent.

North Korea can barely feed its 23 million people even with a good harvest. Massive flooding in recent years left hundreds of people dead or missing, swept away buildings and inundated farms, prompting the reclusive state to seek foreign food aid.

Last year, South Korea called off its suspension of handouts by sending the North corn and powdered milk through the Red Cross.

South Korea once sent up to half a million tonnes of rice and 300,000 tonnes of fertiliser a year to the North under liberal presidents, but the policy was halted when President Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008.

(Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)