NKoreans recount terror when flood engulfed hamlet

[August 13, 2012]  UNGOK, North Korea (AP) -- North Korean soldiers and villagers are still toiling to repair bridges and roads washed away by floods three weeks ago.

Families who lost their homes in Songchon County are living in lean-to tents provided by the Red Cross. Tears rolled down one woman's cheeks Monday as she recalled her terror the night floods engulfed the farming and mining hamlet of Ungok northeast of Pyongyang.

Floods are familiar in this valley where four rivers converge. But villagers sitting in tents say this year's rains were the worst in recent memory.

The floods killed scores and destroyed tens of thousands of homes. And corn, rice and soybean plants already damaged from a protracted drought in May and June lay withered and stunted just a month before harvesting is set to begin.

[Associated Press]

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