The number of people killed or missing in North Korea's floods is more likely to be in the hundreds rather than 54,700 as an aid group reported, international relief agencies said Thursday.
Good Friends, a South Korean group and long-term aid partner for North Korea, said Wednesday that 54,700 people were dead or missing and 2.5 million were homeless after last month's floods in the communist state.
However, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which has provided assistance to North Korea following the floods, said Thursday it believed official figures from Pyongyang were more credible.
"The more recent figures we've seen or reported from the government now speak of several hundreds dead or missing, rather than what this organization is quoting," said Alistair Henley, head of the Red Cross regional delegation office in Beijing.
"We would like to get updated figures from the government but I just find it incredible that there are these figures of more than 54,000."
Figures released by the North Korean government say 150 people were killed and 12,500 people were made homeless, with 23,000 houses destroyed or damaged, said Helena Laatio, the Red Cross spokeswoman in Beijing.
New figures are expected to be released soon, but Henley said he did not expect them to be much higher and any difficulties the government may have had assessing casualties would not make a big difference.
"It's now several weeks since the disaster… I don't think there are other areas, completely different areas of the country that were affected by those July floods that we weren't aware of," Henley said.
A spokesman for the UN's World Food Programme office in Beijing also expressed surprise at the Good Friends' assessment.
"We went to a couple of affected areas and did see quite a lot of damage. It's impossible for us to extrapolate from that, but certainly 54,000 is a huge number," said WFP spokesman Gerald Bourke.
The WFP generally releases its information about its operations in North Korea from Beijing.
North And South Korea To Meet Amid Huge Flood Damage Report
Red Cross officials from North and South Korea will hold weekend talks on aid for the North after severe floods, officials said Thursday, but international organisations cast doubt on one report of tens of thousands dead or missing.
The Unification Ministry said in a statement that Pyongyang had agreed to Saturday's "working-level" talks at the North's Mount Kumgang, which would focus on Seoul's proposal to supply rice and construction materials.
The aid talks are taking place amid varying reports on the scale of flood damage in North Korea, which was hit hard by torrential rain in mid-July.
Good Friends, a Seoul-based aid group and long-term aid partner for North Korea, reported Wednesday the floods left 54,700 people dead or missing and 2.5 million homeless.
The figure is far worse than the damage reports by the communist state's official media or the Red Cross.
The official (North) Korean Central News Agency reported last month "hundreds" of people dead or missing but gave no follow-up reports.
On Thursday the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which has provided assistance following the floods, said it believed Pyongyang's official figures were more credible.
The North Korean government tally shows 150 people were killed and 12,500 people were made homeless, with 23,000 houses destroyed or damaged, said Helena Laatio, the Red Cross spokeswoman in Beijing.
"The more recent figures we've seen or reported from the government now speak of several hundreds dead or missing, rather than what this organization is quoting," said Alistair Henley, head of the Red Cross regional delegation office in Beijing.
"We would like to get updated figures from the government but I just find it incredible that there are these figures of more than 54,000."
Henley also cast doubt on the figure of 2.5 million homeless, saying the floods did not badly affect densely populated cities such as Pyongyang.
A spokesman for the UN's World Food Programme office in Beijing also expressed surprise at the Good Friends' assessment.
"We went to a couple of affected areas and did see quite a lot of damage. It's impossible for us to extrapolate from that but certainly 54,000 is a huge number," said Gerald Bourke.
South Korea last week decided to provide 10 billion won (10.4 million dollars) to civic groups to help buy aid such as rice, flour, medicine and construction equipment.
The Seoul government said it would also send its own shipment of rice, reportedly 100,000 tonnes, and equipment to the North through the Red Cross.
The South had suspended rice aid and other humanitarian assistance for the North in protest at its July 5 missile tests.
But the North last week appealed to South Korean groups for help and the Seoul government said it would assist civic groups offering aid.
"North Korea is suffering from flood damage. The (South Korean) government's assistance for civilian aid will help create favorable situations in relations with North Korea," Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon said.
Serious flooding helped trigger a famine in the mid-1990s in which aid groups estimate some two million North Koreans died.
A decade later the country is still unable to feed all of its 23 million people and depends heavily on outside food aid.
Decades of reckless deforestation have stripped North Korea of tree cover that provides natural protection from catastrophic flooding, leaving the soil vulnerable to landslides on a massive scale.
Energy-starved residents have used every scrap of wood from the countryside to cook food or heat homes through the bitter winters.
