A pro-Pyongyang newspaper for ethnic Koreans in Japan says that North Korean authorities believe that their country's recent flood damage may be ten times worse than last year, and are concerned that food shortages might get worse.

The Choson Sinbo quoted North Korean official Jo Yong-nam, who serves as chief of his government's flood damage task force, as making the estimate.

The paper had reported that during the flooding in mid-July last year, 844 died or were injured, 28-thousand lost their homes and nearly 230 square kilometers of farmland were damaged.

The official said that efforts are under way to wrap up the first-phase recovery work by next month and that railways between Pyongyang and Chongjin have been restored although sections remain severed in mountainous regions.