Bodies of North Korean flood victims float to South

SEOUL, Aug 21 (Reuters) The bodies of 11 North Koreans, victims of floods that have killed hundreds in the reclusive state, floated into the South on rivers that cross their heavily armed border, South Korean officials said today.

Floods in the impoverished North have destroyed thousands of buildings, left more than 300,000 people homeless and wiped out farm land in a country that battles chronic food shortages, international relief agencies said.

The bodies of six males and four females floated down the Imjin river and were found last week by troops who watch over the waterway as it crosses into the South about 60 km (40 miles) north west of Seoul, a Gyeonggi province fire official said.

The victims included two children about 4- or 5-years-old and a teenager, said the official, who asked not to be named.

''There were no clothes on them because they probably had been ripped apart while floating down the river on the rocks and trees,'' the fire official said.

One or two bodies have been carried down the river in floods in recent years, but never as many as 10, the Gyeonggi official said. The two Koreas, still technically at war, are divided by a razor wire and landmine-strewn border.

An official from South Korea's Unification Ministry said separately that a body washed down from North Korea via a different river into Kangwon province.

''We have notified North Korea that we have found 11 bodies and that they will be handed over later on,'' the official said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said last week at least 221 people had been killed and 80 were missing after some of the worst flooding to hit the communist North.

AID STARTS TO FLOW The UN World Food Programme said today it would immediately begin the distribution of emergency food rations.

It reached an agreement with the North Korean government to provide food to 215,000 people affected by the flooding over three months.

The emergency flood response will cost between 5 million dollars to million according to preliminary estimates, it said in a statement, and called on international donors to help.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Monday it has launched an emergency appeal for flood relief, seeking 5.5 million dollars to help 3.7 million North Koreans affected by the floods.

South Korea will start shipping emergency aid later this week to the North. The two delayed until October what will be the second summit of their leaders due to the flooding. The meeting had been set for later this month.

North Korea's official media has said more than 11 per cent of its paddy and maize fields were submerged, buried or swept away as heavy rains saturated the lower half of the country.

The secretive state took the unusual step of showing on its official state TV footage of flooding in the capital, Pyongyang, and other parts of the country.

Heavy rains that pelted the country earlier this month gave way to clear skies this week, bringing some relief. However, in Geneva, the World Health Organisation said the risk of cholera, dysentery, malaria and infection persisted in flooded areas.

The UN health agency, along with the children's fund UNICEF, is distributing emergency health and hygiene kits.

A famine in the mid-to-late-1990s is estimated to have killed up to 10 per cent of North Korea's 23 million population.

REUTERS LPB VC1716