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North Korea has canceled joint celebrations of Korean Independence Day on Aug. 15 marking liberation from Japanese colonial rule. The celebration was to take place from Aug. 14 in Pyongyang, but the North scrapped the plan citing flood damage from heavy rainfall this summer. ¡°It is not appropriate to hold such an event when the people of both North and South Korea are in difficulty due to unexpected damage from heavy downpours,¡± said a North Korean committee tasked with implementing the June 15, 2000 inter-Korean Joint Declaration in a fax to its South Korean counterpart Tuesday.
¡°The unprecedented heavy rainfall dealt a big blow to the two Koreas, and many people were mobilized in the North to repair flood damage in many parts of the nation,¡± it added. Pyongyang on Sunday also notified Seoul that it has cancelled the ¡°Arirang¡± mass calisthenics performance, which features a cast of literally thousands, citing flood damage. The cancellations give some inkling of the extent of the devastation in the secretive country from last month¡¯s catastrophic rains. The North has revealed no figures, but anywhere between several hundreds to 3,000 people were reportedly killed or went missing. Hwanghae Province, North Korea¡¯s breadbasket, was hit especially hard in a blow to the impoverished nation¡¯s already perilous food situation.
Tighter sanctions from the U.S. and Japan and annual joint exercises between Korean and U.S. forces scheduled to start on Aug. 21 may also have played a role in the cancellation. Pyongyang says the so-called Ulchi Focus Lens drills are a preparation to invade and is demanding their suspension. The Rodong Shinmun, the organ of the Central Committee of the Workers¡¯ Party, on Monday said this year¡¯s exercises were ¡°more dangerous than at any other time,¡± adding they were undeniably ¡°deliberate hostile measures by the U.S. against us.¡±
The North Korean military is able to do very little summer training after the floods, sources say. ¡°As far as military authorities are concerned, the number of exercises in the North Korean military has significantly declined¡± after the torrential rainfalls in mid-July, a government official here said. ¡°It seems many soldiers were mobilized to repair flood damage, and most military facilities were damaged by floods, which made it impossible to go ahead with the drills.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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