Kim Jong Un reprimands local authorities for failure to prevent flood damages

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un criticized local authorities and labeled them as "irresponsible" for their failure to avoid the damages caused by a tropical storm that swept across the Korean Peninsula last week, as reported by official media on Monday. 

The tropical storm Khanun, which hit Japan before heading towards the Korean Peninsula, crossed North Korea on Friday morning and led to heavy rainfall in the south. 

Natural disasters have a greater impact on North Korea, an isolated and impoverished country where the less resilient infrastructure and deforestation have made it more susceptible to floods.
During his visit to the flood-submerged agricultural lands in the eastern province of Anbyon, Kim Jong Un stated that the region suffered more damages than others "due to the extremely poor and irresponsible behavior of local officials," according to the Korean Central News Agency. 

The North Korean leader was quoted by the agency as saying that "the authorities in this region did not respond to the measures taken by the state and did not take any action." 

As the storm approached the peninsula, North Korea launched an "active campaign to confront catastrophic weather," calling for measures to reduce damages to North Korea's economic production. 

A series of floods and droughts have partly contributed to the famine that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands in the country during the 1990s. 

AFP