North Korea is reportedly arresting state officials for the serious damage and destruction caused by severe summer flooding, according to Yonhap News Agency.
Around 20 land ministry officials in North Hamgyong Province, one of the areas most affected by the floods, have been detained for allowing heavy rainfall to wreak havoc across the North Korean countryside, North Korean defector Kim Yong-hwa, head of the NK Refugees Human Rights Associations of Korea, revealed Friday.
Given that the young dictator Kim Jong Un executed a senior official with an anti-aircraft gun for dozing off during a meeting, officials being arrested for natural disasters is not much of stretch.
Heavy rain caused intense flooding in the northeast in late August. Around 130 people were killed, several hundred went missing, and hundreds of thousands were left homeless and in need of emergency assistance. Since Pyongyang is focusing on curbing defections and maintaining a security presence rather than directing its full attention to assisting North Korean citizens, the situation is steadily worsening. As winter sets in, disease and other serious issues will take center stage.
Officials in charge of forest management and reservoirs are facing detention or worse for the flood damage. North Korea is filled with mountains and hills. Many of the trees have been cut down for fuel, and the hills were transformed into terraced rice fields. Such an environment allows water to flow unimpeded. Land ministry officials are being blamed for the current situation; however, it was Kim Jong Un who demanded the creation of terraced rice fields and ignored the need to replant trees in the mountains.
Kim Jong Un has yet to visit the regions devastated regions. One of the leading theories is that growing discontent and missing weaponry have increased the likelihood that the “Supreme Leader” might be assassinated.
Kim Jong Un visited flood damaged regions after a strong typhoon last year, but is not doing the same this time around. Kim is currently missing in action.
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