Just like the South, North Korea suffers flooding during the summer rainy season almost every year. However, today’s North Korean citizens are growing more and more concerned about it, since the authorities have not put in place fundamental measures sufficient to address the problem, and damage is accumulating season by season.
One anonymous defector who reached South Korea in 2009 explained to The Daily NK, “As the rainy season comes, North Korea launches flood control afforestation projects from the end of June through early July. However, these projects are conducted temporarily and their maintenance is insufficient.”
“Those people who are mobilized say they do not understand why they are doing the work, which is also useless,” he added.
In 2009, North Korea did place some emphasis on minimizing flood damage in advance of the rainy season, including organizing a “flood prevention measures committee” under the cabinet and establishing a forecasting system.
At the time, Chosun Central News Agency (KCNA) announced the beginning of the rainy season on July 15th, introducing the government measures and claiming, “Every year, the government launches a national package of measures to prevent flood damage in the rainy season.”
However, KCNA also reported flood damage for the first time in 2009, reporting on September 17th, “In Yangdeok, South Pyongan Province, where a lot of damage has been caused by recent torrential rains, a battle to rectify flood damage is being conducted under the guidance of the Provincial Party Committee and with the willpower of the public.”
According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, in the period from August 9th until August 18th, 2009, the amount of precipitation falling in 26 out of 27 regions, with the exception of central areas of Jagang Province, exceeded the annual average over the 22 years between 1973 and 1994.
The area which recorded the highest amount of precipitation was Pyonggang County in Kangwon Province, which recorded 632.1mm, more than 7 times the average of 85.5mm.
In Pyongyang, 399mm of rain fell during the period, more than 6 times the standard amount (60.5mm), and there was 233mm of torrential rain on the 18th alone.
Looking back a little further, North Korea did not suffer from any particularly harsh flooding or typhoon damage in 2008, but on July 19th, 2007, Pyongyang was hit with 466mm of rain. In addition, approximately 500 people died or went missing during August, thousands were wounded, and more than 100,000 people lost their homes.
In July, 2006, flooding caused the death and disappearance of 844 people, while 28,000 people suffered flood damage directly and vast swathes of farmland were flooded, ruining crops.
The primary cause of the damage North Korea suffers is not, however, due to a simple excess of rain, it is mostly down to the absence of trees on hilly slopes. Myeong Soo Jeong, a research fellow with the Korea Environment Institute (KEI), explained in March of last year, “Those places where forests have been damaged are also the most vulnerable to disaster. Southern lowland areas such as those in Kangwon province, along the Yellow Sea coast, Pyongyang and Nampo are all vulnerable.”
Another anonymous defector agreed, saying “They have various projects like building up river banks and creating flood ditches near enterprises, but there is still a fundamental problem; most of the rainy season damage is caused by landslides.”
North Korea is suffering from a food and energy crisis, and therefore, in the act of creating new areas of farmland and gathering firewood, they damage the forest ecosystem, weakening its buffering capacity in disaster situations. This procedure has created a vicious cycle as floods come along every year and create a bigger economic crisis the following year.
Officials in charge of watching North Korean weather for the Korea Meteorological Administration are unwilling to predict the 2010 rainy season damage due to a lack of viable data; however North Korean defectors agree it is obvious that “flood damage could be reduced significantly by a sufficient number of trees on the mountains.”
