North Korea is baking in a “fierce” heatwave, a weather agency official said on Tuesday (August 13, 2024), with the mercury forecast to reach as high as 37C and South Korea also enduring extreme temperatures.
On Tuesday, Kim Kwang Hyok, an official at North Korea’s State Hydro-Meteorological Administration, said the country had “witnessed the fierce heat in recent days” including in the capital Pyongyang.
South of the border, Seoul’s Interior Ministry said that as of Tuesday 21 people had died from suspected heat-related causes this year as the country records unusually high temperatures.
South Korea’s power demand hit an all-time high on Monday (August 12, 2024) as the country’s population battled the heat wave with air conditioners and fans.
North has long endured power shortages, and experts say most residents have no access to air conditioning. “Even in the wealthiest region in the country, only about 0.1% of the city’s total population would be able to turn on an air conditioner when they want to,” Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, said.
He said that the North would never disclose heat casualties but that the number of deaths could be many times higher than in the South.
South Korean media have reported that the number of dead and missing in the North due to the recent flooding could be as high as 1,500.
However, leader Kim Jong-un dismissed the reports last week as a “grave provocation” and “an insult to the flood-stricken people who are all safe and well.”
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