By Kim Se-jeong
A meteorological expert called for international assistance for North Korea, saying it was lacking in up-to-date meteorological equipment.
The Radio Free Asia quoted Avinash Tyagi, director of the climate and water department of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), who visited North Korea in mid-March, as saying “equipment and computers used for weather forecasting were in urgent need of replacement.”
Tyagi’s visit with two other colleagues was the first by a WMO team in eight years.
They were supposed to visit the North last November in light of severe flooding last summer, but the trip was postponed.
The floods cost many lives and left many homeless in Sinuiju near the border with China, drawing immediate international humanitarian assistance, including from the South.
The expert said new equipment would help improve the food situation in the country and encouraged the international community to help. He added of the 186 observatories scattered through the country, only 27 were connected to the international meteorology network. Even the equipment there was outdated, made in the 1970 and 80s.
Food shortages are a chronic problem for North Korea, and this has got worse in recent years, which prompted the regime to run an unprecedented campaign to call for food aid from other countries.
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