Move FM Global News

PYONGYANG, North Korea – With the Korean peninsula experiencing record temperatures, now North Korea has warned that the heatwave is threatening a “natural disaster.”

Having previously suffered bouts of famine, now the North Korean state media has called on its citizens to help protect crops from drought.

The state media warned that key crops such rice and corn were under threat and has called on its citizens to “join the struggle” to safeguard harvests.

An editorial in the state-run newspaper Rodong said, “This year’s high temperature is an unprecedented natural disaster but it is not an insurmountable difficulty. Officials and working people in all fields and units… should turn out as one and devotedly work out of patriotism in the campaign to prevent damage by high temperature and drought.” 

It added, “All people should fully display their patriotic zeal in the ongoing campaign.”

Further, State news agency KCNA said that irrigation equipment was being urgently repaired and new wells and reservoirs were being created.

The alert noted, “Myriads of water carriers, tractors, trucks and other vehicles have been involved in irrigating croplands together with all the available watering equipment and devices.”

Earlier this week, temperatures in the capital Pyongyang hit a record high of 37.8C (100F). 

South Korea has already reported 28 deaths from the heat. 

Recently, the South Korean capital of Seoul recorded its hottest ever temperature at 39C.

Despite a recent diplomatic rapprochement with the U.S., North Korea continues to remain under strict UN sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

Further, decades of state mismanagement and a lack of infrastructure have left the country vulnerable to natural disasters.

Earlier this year, in a rare move, David Beasley, the head of the UN’s World Food Programme made a rare visit to North Korea. 

Accompanied by government minders, Beasley spent two days in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, and two days in other parts of the country.

He noted at the end of the visit that the country was working hard to meet nutritional standards.

Beasley pointed out that levels of hunger were not as high as in the 1990s.

In a widespread famine in the North between 1994 and 1998, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have died.

In an interview with BBC at the end of the visit, Beasley noted, “I didn’t see starvation like you had in the famine back in the 1990s, that’s the good news. But is there a hunger issue, is there under-nutrition? There’s no question about it.”

Following the drought of 2017, the UN had stated that seven in ten North Koreans were relying on food aid, while four in ten were malnourished.