Some of the worst flooding to hit North Korea in decades has killed at least 600 people, double the previous known toll, the official news agency said at the weekend. "The unusual heavy rain caused huge material losses to the DPRK, creating unprecedented difficulties in people's living and economic construction," the official KCNA news agency said. The North's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "According to the information available from the Central Statistics Bureau, torrential rain, strong winds and landslides left at least 600 people dead or missing and thousands of people wounded," KCNA said in a late Saturday report. Flooding in the southern half of the country destroyed thousands of buildings, left more than 300,000 homeless, and wiped out more than 11 percent of the land for grains and maize in a country that already battles chronic food shortages, it has said.
