Following the severe damage to farmland in the Yalu River basin caused by heavy rains in late July, recent satellite images have revealed significant destruction to farms in the northern part of North Pyongan province.
According to satellite images taken on Aug. 15 by Sentinel-2A, a satellite operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), farming areas along the Yalu River and in the interior of North Pyongan province were inundated by muddy water, with crops being swept away by the flood. The satellite images showed that several farming areas had suffered damage, including a wide layer of yellowish mud covering flooded areas.
My analysis of the satellite images found that crops had been damaged or lost in sections of Sinuiju measuring 2,960 hectares, or about half the area of Manhattan (5,910 hectares) — and that only includes the areas visible between cloud cover.
Many rice paddies were swept away in the flooding, compromising this year’s rice harvest. This means that farmers in the area, already facing significant challenges, will have to pivot to non-paddy crops in the year’s second half. After the flood damage has been dealt with and the fields readied for sowing, farmers will get off to a late start and have to work hard to plant a new batch of corn.
In addition to the direct crop loss, the muddy floodwaters have weakened the remaining crops, making them more susceptible to insect infestations and plant diseases. This, coupled with the late start due to the flood damage, means that farmers in the area are unlikely to meet their targets for the fall harvest.
Weather conditions in Sinuiju and other parts of North Pyongan province have been poor since mid-July. Because of heavy cloud cover, few photographs have permitted a decent view of conditions on the ground. It was not until Aug. 15, more than two weeks after the flooding, that satellite images of the sun shining between the clouds were available, enabling me to examine the damage caused by the heavy rains.
After examining several areas through breaks in the clouds, flood damage was detected across a wide swath of the Yalu River basin near Sinuiju on Aug. 15 compared to satellite photos taken on July 18, before the heavy rains. Farmland was damaged throughout the river valley, including Wihwa Island, and there were several areas where crops had been lost, and fields were covered with mud. Even when only the areas visible through the cloud cover were analyzed, the damaged areas (including where crops were washed away) measured around 1,820 hectares.
The damage appeared to be particularly severe around Uiju Airfield and in areas visited by Kim Jong Un on his train on July 28.
