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North Korea: A family’s story of fear and survival

Emergencies

By Andrea Russell, Regional Relief and Crisis Communications Manager Asia Pacific

School teacher Min Pong Gi, his wife Ri Kum Pok a farmer and their three sons fled their home in terror as the heavy rains tore down the rooms one by one during the severe floods that hit North Korea in early August.

Living in a small rural township near P'yongsan City North Hwanghae Province, the family described how they felt as they saw their home, crops and possessions being destroyed.

“We were very scared” Ri Kum Pok explained. “When the rains started on the 7 August they were so heavy so quickly, but we tried to stay in our house for as long as we could and only left long enough to move some of our belongings and furniture to a safe place.”

However by 7.30 the following morning the family could no longer continue to remain in the house and had to quickly grab whatever they could get their hands on and race from the building, as one-by-one their rooms started to cave in beginning with the kitchen.

The couple and their sons Min Gyong Chol (13), Min Gyong Ham (10) and Min Gyong Chan (7) frantically sought temporary shelter close to the school where their father Min Pong Gi teaches sport.

As the water eventually began to subside the family was able to witness the devastation from the strong winds and floodingt hat the heavy rains have left behind. Their house has been reduced to rubble and their remaining possessions ruined. Like many of the houses in DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) their house was made from mud and not concrete, thus it was not able to withstand the onslaught and eventually the entire structure was washed away.

Many of their crops and livestock have also been destroyed, and as the family’s eldest son Min Gyong Chol shyly plays with his t-shirt, he explains how he is still sick and suffering from diarrhea caused by lack of access to clean water.

The family tried to find medicine in the local market to help ease his pain but this made little difference as a shortage of medicines and healthcare is also a problem for the country.  

This one family’s story in North Korea highlights just some of the key issues that are affecting the country at this time. Including ongoing health problems caused by the disaster, which has left many people suffering from broken bones and head injuries as buildings collapsed on top of people, respiratory and stomach problems brought on by exposure to the cold weather while living in temporary shelter and lack of access to food and clean, safe water.

In a meeting between World Vision and The Red Cross in P’yong-yang during a recent World Vision delegation visit to the country, Jaap Timmer from The Red Cross reported that 30% of the health infrastructure in DPRK has been affected as buildings have also been ruined and medicines damaged.

In response to the DPRK government’s international appeal for medicines, the three person World Vision delegation team including Regional HEA Director Richard Rumsey and WV DPRK National Director Victor Hsu were able to visit the country from 8-13 September and as part of their visit deliver 12 boxes of initial medicine supplies to two hospitals on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 September, including paracetamol and saline solution.

These medicines which will also be used by the city hospital close to where the Min Pong Gi and his family live, are just the first of more supplies to be distributed from a World Vision chartered flight from Singapore and will be used particularly to address some of the many illnesses children face in the aftermath of one of the worst floods the country has seen, now over a month ago.

The team, who also conducted assessments to identify the current and long term needs faced by communities in DPRK, was also able to visit the warehouse where the medicines carried in by the Singapore plane on Saturday 8 September are stored at the Ministry of Health in capital P’yongyang.

These initial medicines for P’yon-song City Hospital and P’yong-son City Hospital will have a direct impact on enabling doctors to provide the essential care needed.

DPRK floods crisis homepage

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