N. Koreans upset by shoddy typhoon recovery: RFA

Displaced North Koreans hit by this year’s typhoons said new homes built by the government were still uninhabitable, Radio Free Asia said Wednesday, citing anonymous sources in North Korea.

“Except the ones Kim personally directed recovery for, most homes were barely inhabitable because it was a job half done,” one anonymous source said, referring to leader Kim Jong-un’s personal inspection of the August recovery effort in the hardest-hit North Hwanghae Province.

The source added, “The new homes have no water or heating. And those that do have something wrong elsewhere.”

The source attributed shoddy recovery to the fact that the regime had pushed ahead with the effort without attention to detail to complete the task just in time to celebrate the founding anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party on Oct. 10.

Another source agreed, saying the regime was preoccupied with propaganda that it had already finished delivering new homes to the residents and that they were deeply grateful.

The state newspaper said a week earlier about 820 new homes were rebuilt in about two months.

In August, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies offered relief goods to about 3,000 households in North Hwanghae Province as well as Kangwon Province, the hardest-hit regions, all bordering the South.

By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)