Heavy rains have caused hundreds of casualties in North Korea since last Tuesday.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) says that days of torrential rains flooded tens of thousands of houses by Sunday, leaving hundreds of people dead or missing.

The North Korean side of Gangwon Province was hit hardest with some 20-thousand homes destroyed or submerged.

It is the first time a North Korean news outlet has tallied the number of casualties due to flooding, which also struck the isolated country last year.

KCNA reported that due to the heavy rains, many rice farms were inundated, 800 public buildings and eleven-hundred vehicles were destroyed. It also said that 540 bridges and 70 railways were disconnected.