In
chronicling extreme weather around the globe I somehow overlooked a
major drought on the Korean peninsular
Korean
Drought Worst In A Century For North And South Korea
Parts
of both countries are experiencing the most severe drought since
record-keeping began nearly 105 years ago
26
June, 2012
KOHYON-RI,
North Korea — North Korea dispatched soldiers to pour buckets of
water on parched fields and South Korean officials scrambled to save
a rare mollusk threatened by the heat as the worst dry spell in a
century gripped the Korean Peninsula.
Parts
of both countries are experiencing the most severe drought since
record-keeping began nearly 105 years ago, meteorological officials
in Pyongyang and Seoul said Tuesday.
The
protracted drought is heightening worries about North Korea's ability
to feed its people. Two-thirds of North Korea's 24 million people
faced chronic food shortages, the United Nations said earlier this
month while asking donors for $198 million in humanitarian aid for
the country.
Even
in South Phyongan and North and South Hwanghae provinces, which are
traditionally North Korea's "breadbasket," thousands of
hectares (acres) of crops are withering away despite good irrigation
systems, local officials said.
Reservoirs
are drying up, creating irrigation problems for farmers, said Ri Sun
Pom, chairman of the Rural Economy Committee of Hwangju County.
A
group of female soldiers with yellow towels tied around their heads
fanned out across a farm in Kohyon-ri, Hwangju county, North Hwanghae
province, with buckets to help water the fields. An ox pulled a cart
loaded with a barrel of water while fire engines and oil tankers were
mobilized to help transport water.
The
North Korean villages of Kohyon-ri and Ryongchon-ri were among
several areas that journalists from The Associated Press visited in
recent days.
Pak
Tok Gwan, management board chairman of the Ryongchon Cooperative Farm
in North Korea, said late last week that the farm could lose half its
corn without early rain.
Mountainous
North Korea, where less than 20 percent of the land is arable, has
relied on outside food aid to help make up for a chronic shortage
since natural disasters and outmoded agricultural practices led to a
famine in the 1990s. North Korean farmers still face shortages of
fuel, tractors, quality seeds and fertilizer, the U.N. said in a
report earlier this month. Many irrigation systems rely on
electrically powered pumping stations in a country with unstable
power supplies, the report noted.
On
Tuesday, North Korean state media reported record-high temperatures
in Pyongyang and other cities in the southwest.
South
Korean officials also reported the worst drought in more than a
century in some areas after nearly two months without significant
rainfall, raising worries about damage to crops and a dangerous drop
in water levels in the nation's reservoirs.
"The
worst drought in 104 years is causing damage to our agricultural and
livestock industries, resulting in price hikes in some farm
products," Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan told a crisis
management meeting Tuesday.
Nearly
28,000 South Koreans, including soldiers and local residents, have
been mobilized to help water rice paddies and farm fields and more
than 13,000 water pumps have been provided to drought-stricken areas,
the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.
South
Korean Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik picked up a hose to water a field
during a visit Tuesday to Hwaseong, south of Seoul. Beneath a blazing
sun, dead fish could be seen on the nearly dried-out bed of a
reservoir in Bongdam village in Hwaseong.
Rain
is forecast for South Korea this weekend, the Korea Meteorological
Administration said in Seoul. The agency could not confirm the dry
spell reported in the North, but dispatches sent by North Korea to an
international weather center indicated little rain over the past
several weeks there as well, spokesman Jang Hyun-sik said.
The
drought also has led to deaths of a highly endangered species in a
reservoir in the southern city of Nonsan in South Korea. Hundreds of
cockscomb pearl mussels have perished since June 14 when the
reservoir's water levels drastically dropped, local official Lee
Soo-jung said. Officials have been trying to move the cockscomb pearl
mussels to water, she said.
Officials
blamed high atmospheric pressure over the Korean Peninsula for the
drought.
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