North Korea thanks Russia for humanitarian assistance to flood victims

The DPRK State Committee for Emergency Situations has thanked the Russian government for providing humanitarian assistance to the population of the Hamgyong province battered by a devastating and powerful flooding earlier this year.

Russia’s relief aid was turned over to the North Koreans in a ceremony held at the Ministry of External Economic Affairs in Pyongyang on Nov. 15.

"We are grateful to Russia for the assistance given to the disaster victims in Hamgyong province," a committee representative stated at the ceremony. Russia had delivered the relief aid to the DPRK at the request of the North Korean government to help the country’s battered northern regions who were hit the worst by a typhoon and floods. Representatives of the DPRK Foreign Ministry and Russia’s Ambassador to Pyongyang Alexander Matsegora were present at the handover ceremony.

More than 170 tons of food and over 700 tons of diesel fuel had arrived in the North Korean port city of Rajin by rail from Vladivostok on Nov. 15.

The entire relief cargo was turned over to DPRK representatives.

According to the DPRK’s national meteorological department, the disaster in the Hamgyong province was the worst in over six decades. Tens of thousands of houses and public buildings were destroyed, with enormous damage inflicted on the province’s transport and energy systems, industrial enterprises and grain crops. Additionally, more than 130 people died, while approximately 400 people went missing, yet about 70,000 people were evacuated.

Source: TASS