North Korea’s official media is reporting that the authorities have decided to punish local officials for “failing to properly carry out central government orders” in the “serious accident” caused by Typhoon Maysak that killed and injured dozens of people.
The ruling Workers’ Party has decided to punish Gangwon Province and Wonsan City officials for their “dereliction of duty,” the North Korean official media outlet Labor News reported today, but the report did not give details of the number of dead, injured, and missing.
Video footage shows flooding in the streets of Wonsan, Gangwon Province, an eastern port, as Typhoon Mesa sweeps across the Korean Peninsula this week, bringing torrential rain to North Korea.
According to the report, local officials failed to comply with a directive from the Workers’ Party, headed by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, to immediately and thoroughly inspect potentially affected properties and evacuate all residents, and as a result, authorities “decided to impose severe party, government, and legal penalties on those responsible for the deaths and injuries.
Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector who now lives in South Korea as a researcher, told AFP that punishing local officials is a way for North Korea’s leadership to avoid criticism over the deaths and injuries caused by natural disasters, “They send the message that Kim Jong-un never makes mistakes and that any losses occur because his subordinates fail to follow his orders.
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