Russian president Vladimir Putin offered condolences to North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un over the devastating floods that caused countless casualties and damaged thousands of homes, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
The North, for its part, said on Sunday that Putin also offered “immediate humanitarian support” to help its recovery efforts, to which Kim responded that he “could deeply feel the special emotion for a genuine friend.”
Pyongyang said this week it saw record rainfall on July 27 that killed an unspecified number of people, flooded homes and submerged agricultural areas in the north, near China.
“I ask you to convey words of sympathy and support to all those who lost their loved ones as a result of the storm,” Putin said in a telegram to Kim.
“You can always count on our help and support.”
“Moscow’s message of sympathy was conveyed to the DPRK Foreign Ministry” on Saturday, the KCNA official said, noting that it was immediately communicated to leader Kim.
Kim thanked Putin for the disclosure but said “plans have already been established as state measures have been taken at the current stage.”
Regarding the offer, Kim said that “if help is needed in the course, he will ask for it from his truest friends in Moscow,” KCNA reported.
Pyongyang said on Wednesday that authorities neglecting their disaster prevention duties caused unspecified casualties, without providing details about the location.
He said on Saturday that there were no casualties in the Sinuiju area, the region that Pyongyang says suffered the “heaviest flood damage.”
North Korea and Russia have been allies since the North’s founding, after World War II, and have become even closer since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Media in South Korea, which has offered urgent support to the victims, said this week that the number of dead and missing could reach 1,500.
Kim lashed out at the reports, dismissing them as a “smear campaign to bring disgrace to us and tarnish” the North’s image.
North Korea is accused of violating arms control measures by supplying weapons to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine.
Natural disasters tend to have a greater impact on the isolated and impoverished country due to its weak infrastructure, while deforestation has left it vulnerable to flooding.
bur-kjk/fox
