AFP :
North Korea will move more than 15,000 flood victims to the capital, state media said Saturday, as leader Kim Jong Un insisted recovery efforts would be “based on self-reliance” despite offers of aid from abroad.
Pyongyang last week said a record downpour in late July had killed an unspecified number of people, flooded dwellings, and submerged swathes of farmland in its northern regions near China.
On a visit to flood-hit Uiju on Friday, Kim said the government planned to accommodate around 15,400 flood victims from the northern region at facilities in the capital until their destroyed homes are rebuilt, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
The plan, which will include food and medical assistance as well as educational support for the thousands of students being moved, will be “a top priority of the state,” Kim said.
International offers of support have poured in since news of the flooding disaster first emerged, including from South Korea, which offered humanitarian aid via the Korean Red Cross despite the two countries’ strained relations.
Moscow has reached out with a similar offer, according to Pyongyang, while Seoul’s Yonhap news agency has reported that China and the United Nations Children’s Fund had signalled their willingness to help.