Typhoon Mayask: North Korea vows to punish officials for ‘casualties’

North Korea has vowed to punish local officials over a storm that hit the east coast on Wednesday.

A Workers’ Party newspaper blamed officials in the coastal town of Vonson for failing to prepare for the Tons of Fun Mayask and accused them of having an “irresponsible attitude.”

The paper did not say how many people were missing, injured or killed, but said there were “dozens of casualties”.

It claimed that the officials had failed to comply with the orders given by the ruling party.

Local officials in Vonson were instructed to “immediately set up a project to better identify the risky properties and relocate all residents,” the Roaddong Sinmun newspaper reported on Saturday.

“It was decided to impose strict party, administrative and legal punishment on those responsible for this tragedy.”

It is impossible to check whether local officials disregarded these orders, or whether they are being unfairly targeted by the ruling party to quell public discontent, says Celia Hatton, editor of BBC Asia Pacific.

Footage on state broadcaster KCTV earlier in the week showed bridges and concrete walls in Kangwon Province, which were destroyed by floodwaters.

The damage came just a week after Typhoon Mayasak hit another country in North Korea, Typhoon Bawi.

North Korea is particularly vulnerable to flooding due to deforestation of mountains and mountain forests. The structural features of his illness also mean that natural disasters are a particular challenge.

Typhoon Maysek also struck South Korea, killing at least two people and displacing more than 2,200 people in the southern city of Busan.