Almost 300 dead or missing in N Korea floods

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SEOUL, Aug 16 (AFP): Almost 300 people are dead or missing in floods in North Korea, an aid agency said Thursday, as the communist state painted a grim picture of inundated crops and homes, flooded mines and washed-out roads.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said 214 were killed and 80 are missing in what it has called the worst floods to hit the impoverished country in a decade.
The acting head of the IFRC delegation in Pyongyang, Terje Lysholm, told AFP by phone that the figures -- the first detailed casualty count -- came from the government.
Some 300,000 people are homeless, according to official data, and 11 per cent of the grain harvest -- equivalent to some 450,000 tons -- was lost in a country which already needs foreign aid to feed its people.
In the latest unusually detailed report from the reclusive state, an official broadcasting station said main roads, including one linking the capital Pyongyang to the eastern city of Wonsan, were badly damaged.
"Korean People's Army soldiers are also out in force to stage hectic struggles to restore roads," it said, as quoted by Seoul's Yonhap news agency.
Parts of the showpiece capital lost power, and bus and subway services were hit, Kim Sung-Gwan of the electric power ministry told Pyongyang radio.
Power equipment in the western provinces of North Hwanghae and South Pyongan was inundated or damaged.