President of Russia Vladimir Putin has offered condolences to North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un over devastating floods that have killed countless people and damaged thousands of homes, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
The North, in turn, said on Sunday that Putin had also offered “immediate humanitarian support” to help its recovery efforts, to which Kim replied that he could “deeply feel the special feeling towards a true friend”.
Pyongyang said this week it had seen a record-breaking downpour on July 27 that killed an unspecified number of people, flooded homes and submerged swaths of farmland in the north near China.
“I ask you to convey 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.”
“The sympathy message from Moscow was conveyed to North Korea’s foreign ministry” on Saturday, the official KCNA said, noting that it was immediately reported to leader Kim.
Kim thanked Putin for the outreach but said “plans have already been established as state measures have been taken at the current stage”.
Regarding the offer, Kim said “if help is necessary in the course, he would ask for it from the truest friends in Moscow,” KCNA reported.
Pyongyang said on Wednesday that officials who neglected their disaster prevention duties had caused unspecified casualties, without giving details of the location.
It said on Saturday there were no injuries at all in the Sinuiju area, the region Pyongyang claimed suffered the “greatest 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 be as high as 1,500.
Kim hit out at the reports, dismissing them as a “smear campaign to bring shame on us and tarnish” the North’s image.
North Korea is accused of violating arms control measures by supplying weapons to Russia for use in its 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.
cage-kjk/fox