The North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited coastal areas hit by a typhoon and ordered 12,000 core party members to join the effort for recovery on Saturday while dismissing a provincial party chief, state media confirmed on Sunday.
The state-run television KRT carried footage of Kim convening a meeting with the officials and walking in the typhoon-hit area. While the North Korean Supreme Leader surveyed the damage caused due to the typhoon that affected the coastal areas last week.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) stated that over 1,000 houses got destroyed in the coastal areas of Douth and North Hamgyong provinces and confirmed that the farmland and some public buildings had been inundated.
The leader of North Korea led an enlarged executive policy committee meeting on the recovery efforts in the typhoon-hit regions, focussing on the detailed measures like the organization of building crews to be dispatched to the areas, material transport, and designs, KCNA stated.
Kim Jong Un Visits Typhoon-Hit Areas
At the meeting, the leader also dismissed the chairman of the South Hamyong provincial party committee and appointed a new chairman. The ruling party had called for the punishment of the officials who failed to follow the orders resulting in 'dozens of casualties' as the nation's official party newspaper confirmed on Saturday.
Separately, the leader sent an open letter to the party members in the capital noting that this year the nation has witnessed many crises. It added that the Party Central Committee decided to dispatch 12,000 party members from Pyongyang to the typhoon-hit regions for helping communities recover.
North Korea has been putting "practical measures" to minimize damage from the tenth typhoon of the season by informing people of locations of shelters and typhoon paths as well as how to respond and behave, KCNA reported. The nation has been struggling with torrential rains, typhoons, and floods in one of the wettest rainy seasons on record.
(With agency inputs)
