Hundreds of people are dead or missing following heavy floods in North Korea, state news agency KCNA said.

The flooding was caused by five days of torrential rain, which destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of farmland and more than 30,000 homes.

Communication with the flood-hit areas has been difficult, as more than 540 bridges and 70 stretches of railway were also destroyed, KCNA said. Sections of the power grid are also down.

Seasonal floods in August last year killed hundreds of people, although the secretive North Korean regime has not released exact figures.

The extension of farmland to feed the isolated country, ravaged by famine in the 1990s, has probably sped up soil erosion, making the seasonal floods worse than in the past, experts say.

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