Typhoon Bolaven leaves three dead in N. Korea: state media

North Korea's state media said Thursday Typhoon Bolaven left three dead and 3,300 homeless and submerged farmlands, as the disaster-prone nation braced for the second major storm in less than a week.
   
The North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the human casualties caused by Bolaven, which swept the North on Tuesday and Wednesday, without giving the number of those injured or missing, citing "data available on Thursday."
  
Bolaven, the strongest storm to hit the peninsula in almost a decade, left 25 dead or missing and 222 homeless in South Korea, according to the state disaster authority.
   
The KCNA reported that more than 1,250 hectares of farmland were flooded across North Korea, with more than 1,000 hectares of the flooded farmland located in South Hwanghae Province, one of the nation's granaries.
   
It also said public buildings and roads in several areas were destroyed, and 6,800 trees were knocked down by strong wind and heavy rains.
   
With recovery efforts still under way, a second major storm Tembin is forecast to batter the North with more downpours, after passing through the southern part of the peninsula from Thursday to early Friday.
   
The twin storms come as concerns are rising over the humanitarian crisis in the impoverished communist state, which is vulnerable to typhoons and storms due to widespread deforestation and a lack of basic infrastructure.

(Yonhap News)