North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has criticized his government’s “irresponsible” handling of the floods linked to the recent Storm Khanun, state media reported on Tuesday.
Their footage shows Mr Kim in a flooded paddy field in the Nampho area, knee-deep in water, giving directions to stern-eyed officials and also taking notes while standing in the water.
The damage was “not a disaster due to natural disasters, but a human disaster due to the irresponsibility…of lazy people,” he said, according to the official KCNA (Korean Central News Agency).
According to KCNA, Mr Kim made “serious” accusations against government officials, specifically targeting Prime Minister Kim Tok Hun. The latter “walked around the site once or twice with the attitude of a spectator,” the agency continued.
Tropical Storm Khanun swept across North Korea in early August, a country prone to flooding due to lack of infrastructure and deforestation.
A damaged wharf and an inadequate drainage system have flooded more than 560 hectares of land, including key rice paddies, according to North Korean state media. According to KCNA, Mr. Kim ordered those responsible to be “severely punished.”
When Kim visited flooded farmland in eastern Anbyon County, he reprimanded local authorities on August 14. Last week he commended the army for helping save the crops in Kangwon province. The prime minister “left the reconstruction work almost entirely to the military,” Kim said at the time, according to KCNA.
A “major reshuffle of the North Korean government seems inevitable,” noted Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute.
The UN Security Council last week accused Pyongyang of spending heavily on its nuclear weapons program because its people lack basic necessities.
The country was regularly hit by famines in the 1990s, which are estimated to have claimed hundreds of thousands to millions of victims.
According to the Seoul Intelligence Agency, North Korea’s economy is in a “vicious circle”, with negative growth between 2020 and 2022 and a 12% drop in GDP in 2022 compared to 2016.
KCNA reports show that food problems in the country have worsened, said An Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who heads the World Institute for North Korea Studies.
“We have to find a scapegoat for the anger of the starving people,” he told AFP, believing the prime minister would soon be sacked or even punished.
On Tuesday, North Korea informed Japan of its plan to launch a satellite soon, promptly denounced by Tokyo and Seoul.