North Korea’s deadly floods undermine the nation’s projection of power

Reporting from Beijing —  More than 100,000 people have fled their homes and hundreds are missing in floods that North Korea is calling its worst disaster since World War II, prompting a rare admission of weakness from one of the world’s most belligerent states.

Only a week after testing a nuclear bomb, effectively thumbing its nose at the outside world, North Korea is looking for international aid after floods from Typhoon Lionrock devastated the country’s poor northeastern region.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday that the country has experienced the “heaviest downpour” since 1945, with “tens of thousands” of buildings destroyed and citizens “suffering from great hardship.”

At least 133 people have died, according to a report this week from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

International relief agencies this week said they have begun to deliver food and emergency shelter supplies.

The devastation is slowly fueling a humanitarian crisis that undermines the regime’s credibility just as it tries to demonstrate strength.

“North Korea is like a dog that bites the hand that is feeding it,” said Go Myung-Hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. “It’s an embarrassment for Kim Jong Un.”

The floods ripped through villages along the Tumen River, near the border with China. “There was barely a building left unscathed,” Chris Staines, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Pyongyang, said in a statement.

He recently returned from a government-led visit with other relief workers to the affected regions. Staines described watermarks taller than people and families digging for possessions from “piles of debris where their homes once stood.”

Below-freezing temperatures in coming months will create additional challenges for the thousands of people who no longer have homes. Officials at the United Nations World Food Program said they are “concerned about the continued vulnerability of these people as the extremely cold winter is approaching, and major food losses are expected.”

Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that 140,000 people were affected but that the number is expected to grow as relief workers assess areas that have so far been inaccessible.

North Korea last week conducted its fifth and largest nuclear test, defying international calls for restraint. The country is already under U.N. sanctions for its repeated nuclear and missile tests and its provocations toward its neighbors.

In theory, humanitarian aid is unrelated to sanctions and an exception under U.N. Security Council resolutions for humanitarian assistance. But then again, the relief agencies who put out appeals to donors for funding have to contend with the fact that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, is one of the most unpopular in the world.

Scott Snyder, a Korean specialist for the Council on Foreign Relations, says the North Koreans see no contradiction between the country’s defiance of the international community and its pleas for help.

“For the North Koreans, there is no logical disconnect. This is an issue for the international community,’’ said Snyder. “When it rains, do we hold Kim Jong Un accountable, or do we make exceptions on humanitarian grounds, recognizing that he is in effect holding an entire population hostage?”

Roughly 70% of North Koreans do not have enough to eat, and 1 out of every 3 children younger than 5 is stunted by poor nutrition. The U.N. World Food Program has been delivering food aid to North Korea since the 1990s, when a famine killed up to 2 million people, about 10% of the population.

Food aid has continued for pregnant and nursing women and children, but the programs have been reduced because of insufficient funding.

“There is a significant aid fatigue” with North Korea, Snyder said.

In addition, the sanctions make it cumbersome for the agencies working inside North Korea to bring in cash to fund their operations.

With the latest nuclear test, thought to be the most powerful nuclear device North Korea has exploded so far, the U.S. and other nations have discussed even tighter sanctions.

But a North Korean foreign ministry official on Sunday called the threat of further sanctions “laughable,” according to state media, and vowed the nation would continue to develop its nuclear arsenal.

“In the grand scheme of things, Korean leaders are aware of the contradictions,” Go said. “But their point of view makes total sense. They are letting the international community provide for people in North Korea, so the party and military can save money to divert to military spending.”

The torrential rains and flooding are the biggest natural disaster to strike North Korea since Kim Jong Un took over in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il.

Although North Korea remains one of the world’s poorest countries, its economy has edged upward in recent years because of relaxation of controls on free markets under the younger leader.

The once drab Soviet-era capital of Pyongyang is also in the midst of a makeover; there are skyscrapers and luxury apartments for the elite, health clubs, pizza parlors and a new water park.

The flooding unleashed by last month’s typhoon decimated communication channels, destroyed roads and ruined water supplies for tens of thousands of people, according to international agencies.

World Food Program workers say they have distributed soybeans and fortified biscuits to 140,000 people but need $1.2 million to replenish supplies.

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Meyers, a special correspondent, reported from Beijing. Demick reported from New York.

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UPDATES:

3:45 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details.

This article was originally published at 9:25 a.m.