SEOUL, Sept. 17 (UPI) — North Korea state media reported Kim Jong Un inspected the city of Rason to monitor recovery efforts, after heavy flooding killed at least 40 people in August.
Kim had ordered recovery to be completed before the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers’ Party on Oct. 10, and according to KCNA on Friday, local time, Kim had visited the flood-affected zone to show his largesse, Yonhap reported.
“[Kim] has lost sleep over the flood victims who have lost their homes in the wake of the disaster,” Pyongyang said. “He came to the flood-affected zone out of concern.”
State media reported top military aide Hwang Pyong So and Workers’ Party chief Ri Il Hwan and deputy chief Jo Yong Won accompanied Kim. Kim said that the people of the counties had joined forces to recover submerged houses and restore power lines and railways, and that they had carried out a “major achievement.”
North Korea’s state newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported all factories affected by the Aug. 22-23 flooding had resumed operations, after Kim had decreed on Aug. 27 flood recovery be completed before the October anniversary.
Thousands of North Koreans have suffered damages to their homes, according to North Korea, and in the aftermath of the disaster Pyongyang had released rare footage of the devastation in the country’s northeast region.
