Seoul, Aug 7 (IANS): North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has attended a ceremony to dispatch young workers to flood-affected areas on the northern border, describing the restoration efforts as a "gigantic revolutionary construction campaign," the state media said on Wednesday.
The border city of Sinuiju and Uiju County in North Phyongan Province were recently struck by heavy rains. While North Korea has not released detailed information on the damage, South Korean media outlets have reported that the number of dead or missing could exceed 1,000, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The departure ceremony for the Paektusan Hero Youth Shock Brigade took place in Pyongyang on Tuesday, Yonhap news agency reported quoting KCNA.
The North's leader said that such restoration work would give a complete facelift to the territory, expressing confidence that the youth members would be a vanguard unit for socialist construction.
He also mentioned that nearly 300,000 young people have volunteered for the recovery efforts in less than a week, emphasising that such explosive volunteering enthusiasm is unparalleled in any other country.
Kim's attendance is seen as a tactic to prevent large-scale ideological defection during a national crisis and to demonstrate to the outside world the regime's ability to overcome disaster situations on its own.
Observers say Pyongyang is unlikely to accept Seoul's proposal for flood aid. Last Thursday, the South Korean government offered humanitarian aid to North Korea for the damage.
North Korea has not yet responded through the inter-Korean liaison communication channel.
North Korea has also declined Russia's offer of assistance with rain damage recovery, stating that it will seek Moscow's help when necessary.
The Paektusan Hero Youth Shock Brigade is a youth organization frequently deployed for large-scale civil engineering and construction projects in North Korea. They were involved in the completion of a power plant in 2016 and the construction of urban districts in Pyongyang.