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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured coastal areas hit by a typhoon and ordered 12,000 core party members to join the recovery effort on Saturday, while ousting a provincial party chief, state media reported Sunday.
North Korean state television, KRT, aired footage of Kim calling a meeting with North Korean officials and walking through the typhoon-hit area.
As Kim surveyed the damage caused by a typhoon that hit coastal areas last week, a 10th typhoon of the season swirled in the East China Sea.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that more than 1,000 houses were destroyed in coastal areas of Hamgyong’s South and North provinces and reported that farmland and some public buildings had been flooded.
KCNA reported no deaths or injuries in the two provinces. But the country’s main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said on Saturday that “dozens of victims” were reported in Kangwon province, south of Hamgyong provinces, and that Kangwon officials would be “severely punished” for failing to evacuate residents to a safe place.
Kim led an expanded executive policy committee meeting on recovery efforts in the typhoon-hit areas, focusing on detailed measures such as organizing construction crews to be dispatched to the areas, designs and transportation of materials, KCNA said.
At the meeting, he also removed the chairman of the South Hamyong provincial party committee and appointed a new chairman.
North Korea’s ruling party had called for the punishment of officials whose failure to follow orders results in “dozens of casualties” during the typhoons, the country’s official party newspaper reported on Saturday.
Separately, Kim sent an open letter to party members in the capital noting that this year has seen “rare difficulties due to the prolonged global public health crisis” and natural disasters.
The letter adds that the Party Central Committee decided to send 12,000 party members from Pyongyang to the typhoon-affected areas to help communities recover.
North Korea has been implementing “practical measures” to minimize damage from the tenth typhoon of the season by informing people about the location of the shelters and the routes of the typhoons, as well as how to respond and behave, KCNA reported.
The isolated country has been dealing with torrential rains, floods and typhoons in one of the wettest rainy seasons on record.
Typhoon Maysak slammed into the Korean peninsula on Thursday. In South Korea, it left at least two dead and thousands temporarily without power.
Typhoon Haishen is expected to hit the southern tip of South Korea on Monday, according to the South Korean Meteorological Administration.
