North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has pledged to transform backward regions, as the recent downpours in the country’s northwestern border areas left many flood victims displaced and caused damage, state media reported Friday.

Kim made the remark Thursday during his visit to lodging quarters in Pyongyang prepared for the victims from flood-hit areas in North Phyongan, Jagang and Ryanggang provinces, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Heavy rains in late July inundated large areas along the Amnok River, with some South Korean media outlets reporting that the number of those who died or went missing probably exceeded 1,000.

The North’s leader said going beyond recovery work in the affected areas, the country needs to turn them into a “model and textbook” of regions to become “urbanized, modernized and civilized.”

“Our confidence in changing today’s disaster to a watershed for transforming regions has become more unwavering based on this unity of the whole society,” Kim was quoted as saying by
the KCNA.

During last week’s trip to Uiju County in North Phyongan, Kim met with flood victims staying at a temporary shelter and promised to bring them to Pyongyang.

The KCNA said more than 13,000 victims, including children, the elderly and sick people, arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday and came to lodging quarters.

Photos carried by the state media showed Kim looking around children having meals. He was seen hugging a child and wiping tears of another in an apparent bid to show an image of a leader caring for the people.

Last week, Kim promised to support flood victims without outside help in a message that amounts to rejecting international aid and South Korea’s proposal for flood damage relief.

Source:Yonhapi News Agency