North Korea touts 'endless joy' for people after flood recovery

SEOUL, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- North Korea is touting disaster recovery as a "miraculous victory" months after heavy floods destroyed parts of the country's northeast in late August and early September.

But some sources in the country are not happy with the rebuilding efforts.

Pyongyang has previously called recovery of its railroad a "miracle," and on Wednesday state-controlled news agency KCNA reported the "victory" took place at the "reconstruction front" in North Hamgyong Province.

North Korea credited the mass mobilization movement known as the "200-day battle" for the recovery, an effort that is "bringing endless joy" to the people.

According to KCNA, 11,900 new homes have been built for residents who were forced out of their shelters in the aftermath of the floods, and more than 100 facilities ranging from nurseries to medical clinics have been built.

Another 15,000 homes have been repaired, North Korea stated.

Public infrastructure is being rehabilitated, and a total of 190,000 square meters of embankment along the Tumen River that divides China and North Korea has been the site dozens of bridge restorations, according to Pyongyang.

"It is a great victory that is the crowning moment of 2016, the historic year of the Seventh Party Congress," North Korea stated.

But sources in North Korea say local residents are dismissing the newly built homes.

A source in North Hamgyong Province told South Korean news service Daily NK the homes are "being turned down by a lot of residents, and now it appears about 10 percent of the homes are vacant."

The source added North Koreans who lost entire villages in the floods have permanently migrated to a new region.

A second source in the province said, "There is nothing inside [the homes]. All other things [residents] have to work out on their own."

Foreign diplomats have previously said the construction appeared to have taken place at a very rapid pace, and one shelter adviser with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has said the work has been taking place at a pace that would usually take three years in a developing country.