The Koreas

North Korean Defectors: Floods More Damaging Than the World Thinks

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The Koreas

North Korean Defectors: Floods More Damaging Than the World Thinks

North Korean defectors believe official figures far underreport the scale of the disaster.

North Korean Defectors: Floods More Damaging Than the World Thinks

The Tumen River along the China-North Korea border.

Credit: Flickr/ Roman Harak

More than two months after floods ravaged their secretive homeland, North Korean defectors living south of the border are convinced both the regime and international aid agencies have massively underreported the scale of the devastation.

Flooding at the end of August killed 138 people and left about 400 others missing in North Hamgyong Province, according to figures from the United Nations. Those numbers haven’t been updated since their announcement a fortnight after the disaster hit.

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