What happened?

In the recent month, the DPRK has been hit by several natural disasters.

In the beginning of August, there was a flood in North Hamgyong province. According to the Rodong Sinmun report:

Due to several consecutive days of torrential rain and rainstorm recently caused by the seasonal rainy front, the waterway levee gave way in the area of Taechong-ri of Unpha County, leaving more than 730 single-floored houses and 600-odd hectares of rice field inundated and 179 blocks of dwelling houses destroyed.

[…]

[…] there was no casualty as all the residents of Unpha County were evacuated to the safe area in advance

There were more damages by the rainy season, as discussed at the 16th Politburo meeting:

During the rainy season 39 296 hectares of crops were damaged nationwide including Kangwon, North and South Hwanghae Provinces and Kaesong City, at least 16 680 dwelling houses and over 630 public buildings were destroyed or inundated, lots of roads, bridges and railway sections broken, a dam of a power station gave way and there were other severe damage in various sectors of the national economy.

A particular mention was made of the fact that inhabitants in the areas with severe damage including Kimhwa, Cholwon, Hoeyang and Changdo counties in Kangwon Province and Unpha and Jangphung counties in North Hwanghae Province are living in the evacuated areas, undergoing great pain in their living.

At the end of August, Typhoon №8 hit the South Hwanghae province. However:

the damage by Typhoon No. 8 is smaller than expected

On 3rd September, another typhoon (Typhon №9) hit the South and North Hamgyong province. According to Rodong Sinmun:

Heavy rain and strong wind by Typhoon No. 9 destroyed over 1 000 dwellings along the coastline areas of the two provinces each and not a few public buildings and farmlands were inundated.

Precautions taken

Typhoon No. 8 was not unexpected. Minimizing damage was discussed at the 17th Enlarged Meeting of the Politburo:

The meeting put an emphasis on the discussion of the issues of taking thorough state emergency measures on preventing the damage with strong typhoon expected to affect the overall area of the DPRK including South Hwanghae, South Phyongan and North Phyongan Provinces between August 26 and 27.

Kim Jong Un set forth tasks for the Party organizations, people’s power organs and public security organs at all levels, saying that to thoroughly prevent the casualties by typhoon and minimize the damage to the crops is an important work which can never be neglected even a moment for our Party bearing the responsibility for the destiny of the people and also a crucial one deciding whether we would successfully wrap up this year’s farming or not.

He stressed the need to conduct information activities among officials, Party members and other working people in an intensive way to awaken them to the importance of the work for preventing the damage by typhoon and the method for countering crisis, and called upon all the fields of national economy to take instant measures to prevent the damage from the typhoon.

The meeting decided to map out and issue the written directive of the Central Committee of the Party on thoroughly implementing the instructions given by Kim Jong Un.

And the specific measures taken:

In the fields of coal and extractive industries steps are being taken to increase the number of pumping machines and piping to drain water from heavy rain out of pits in time.

Thermo-power and hydro-power stations are taking urgent measures to protect generating equipment and hydraulic structures from thunderbolt, heavy rain and storm.

The railway transport field is putting greater efforts to the inclined railroad sections and places prone to landslide, and people have taken up an emergency posture to be able to immediately cope with any circumstances.

In the fishery and offshore farms on the west coast of the DPRK fishing boats have been taken to safe zones and measures are being taken to prevent the production buildings, discharging equipment and culture farms from damage.

The land and environmental field is making all efforts to prevent the damage by the typhoon after making a list of the dangerous places with poor conditions.

Strong measures for protecting crops from the typhoon are also being taken on farms across the country.

(From a quick look, I didn’t find a report about preparations against Typhoon №9. Maybe Typhoon №9 was unexpected. Maybe I’m just overwhelmed by the big amount of sources and can’t find it. Maybe they’re just not reporting on the same thing again and again.)

There’s yet another typhoon approaching (appropriately named “Typhoon № 10”), and precautions are being taken again. According to KCNA:

Pyongyang, September 6 (KCNA) – It is brisk in the DPRK to prevent damage by approaching Typhoon No. 10.

The state non-permanent measure committee against disaster has meticulously organized the work to take thoroughgoing measures for preventing damage, directly after the issue of a warning against typhoon. And non-permanent measure committees at all levels have taken practical measures to minimize the damage by Typhoon No. 10, based on experience and lessons drawn from the past.

In particular, they took strong measures for preventing casualties while informing residents of methods to cope with crisis, like rules of conduct, shelter areas and direction of movement.

Preemptive and careful measures against typhoon damage are also being taken in all sectors of the national economy and major construction sites.

And preparations for immediate recovery from damage have been made, according to the warning and information system against natural disasters. -0-

Recovery

Here is a video by Echo of Truth about flood recovery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScDvLP0f_b0 It has English and Korean subtitles and is narrated in Russian. Here is a KCTV report about the reconstruction efforts (w/ English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gWuHi_Y8Ts

Comrade Kim Jong Un inspected the Taechong-ri Area of Unpha county of North Hamgyong province that was affected by the flood. Rodong Sinmun reports:

Saying that he was really relieved to learn that there was no casualty as all the residents of Unpha County were evacuated to the safe area in advance, he called on leading organs in the county including Party and power organs, working people’s organizations and public security organs to responsibly conduct the work of putting up the residents who lost their homes at offices including those at the Party committee and people’s committee of the county, public buildings and separate houses, to stabilize their living and comfort them.

He ordered the relevant field to submit a document on supplying every household in the afflicted area with the reserve food grain of the chairman of the State Affairs Commission.

It is of priority importance to quickly supply sleeping materials, daily commodities, medicines and other necessities to the flood-affected people to stabilize their living as early as possible, he said, entrusting this task entirely to the departments of the Party Central Committee and families of its officials.

He gave an order to organize the flood damage rehabilitation headquarters with cadres of the relevant departments of the Party Central Committee and the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces, and instructed the headquarters to report to him after correctly calculating the materials and forces needed for the rehabilitation, while sizing up the flood damage on the spot for starters.

The central designing force should be sent to newly build 800 model houses in the farm village of Unpha County hit by the flood and the project be completed at an earliest date possible and on the highest level, he said.

Saying he decided to mobilize the people’s army for the rehabilitation again, he ordered the people’s army to form a necessary force and urgently deploy it and to give precedence to the arrangement of the wrecked houses, roads and the zones with the people of the county.

Stressing the importance to take measures to ensure materials such as cement necessary for the rehabilitation, he gave an instruction to use the strategic reserve supplies of the chairman of the State Affairs Commission to meet the calculated amount.

[to be continued in the comments, as there is a characters amount restriction which doesn’t let me write the full thing here]