By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South Korea is considering sending relief supplies to help the North recover from severe flooding, the Ministry of Unification said Tuesday.
Hundreds of people are dead or missing in North Korea following week-long torrential rain that has destroyed thousands of houses, and damaged roads and railway tracks, the North's state media reported.
``North Korea seems to be suffering a greater loss of lives and property than it did during July's flooding last year,'' Seo Sung-woo at the ministry's intelligence analysis bureau told reporters.
``I don't think the inter-Korean summit will be affected by the floods. However, if the rains continue, it is hard to predict,'' said Seo.
In 2006, monsoons rains hit much of the impoverished state, killing hundreds of people.
Floods in July that year left over 500 people dead and nearly 300 people missing, according to the Chonson Sinbo, a Japan-based pro-North Korean newspaper.
In the following month, Seoul sent $82 million worth of aid to Pyongyang. The South provided the North with 100,000 tons of rice and cement, five tons of iron, construction equipment, 80,000 blankets and 10,000 emergency kits, according to the ministry.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said this year's heavy rain destroyed at least 30,000 homes of 63,300 families, and more than 540 bridges and sections of railway.
The agency said heavy downpours had caused ``huge human and material damage.'' Many parts of the country received between 30 and 67 centimeters of rain from Aug. 7 to 12, it said.
Gangwon Province was hit the hardest, with more than 20,000 homes damaged or destroyed.
Pyongyang and neighboring provinces including South Hwanghae and South Pyeongan were also badly affected, according to the report.
Experts blamed decades of reckless deforestation for North Korea's flood problems, saying the country has been stripped of tree cover that provides natural protection.
The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) emergency operations staff is on a 24-hour alert to monitor flood damage in North Korea and has distributed aid kits to some 500 families, its Web site said.
``People have been evacuated and brought to safety,'' it said, and county governments are ``appealing to cooperative farms to donate emergency food for homeless people.''