Pro-Pyongyang paper says 549 people dead from floods in N.Korea

A pro-North Korea newspaper reported Monday that 549 people died from recent floods in North Korea and 295 went missing, citing what it claims to be an official count by the communist state.

The numbers, if confirmed, are the first official count by the reclusive North, which had previously said only that "hundreds" were killed or went missing during the recent floods.

"According to (North Korea's) data, there are 549 people dead, 295 missing and 3,043 injured," the Choson Sinbo, a newspaper published by the General Association of Korean Residents, a pro-Pyongyang association of Korean resident sin Japan, said in a report posted on its Web site.

The report came after a South Korean civic organization, Good Friends, claimed Wednesday that as many as 10,000 North Koreans may have been killed due to torrential rains in North Korea last month.

The newspaper said the heavy rains from July 14 through 16 in the North inflicted "not a small amount" of damage, but the claim by Good Friends and a similar claim by an opposition Grand National Party legislator were exaggerations that run on a "malicious intention" to slander the North.

The report also comes amid increasing efforts by the South Korean organization and many others to send emergency relief aids to the impoverished North.

The South Korean government suspended its humanitarian aid for North Korea shortly after Pyongyang test-fired seven ballistic missiles on July 5, despite its repeated warnings and opposition.

The government remains reluctant to resume shipments of humanitarian aid, which include rice and fertilizer, but is "considering joining the civilian efforts" to help the North recover from flood damages, a spokesman for the Unification Ministry told reporters earlier in the day.

Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok was scheduled to hold meetings with various civic organization leaders this week to determine whether the government should take part in the civilian efforts, the ministry spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

"A meeting of a government-civilian policy coordination committee on North Korea is to be held on Friday," during which the government will decide whether it will take part in the civilian-led relief efforts, the spokesman said.

International relief agencies with officials in Pyongyang, such as the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, had previously estimated that about 280 North Koreans were either killed or missing due to the floods in the North.

Seoul, Aug. 7 (Yonhap News)