The Show Must Go On, but Not the Summit

I think Nomad is on to something with the fact that the North Korean Arirang Mass Games are going to continue despite the flooding, but the Second Inter-Korea Summit has been delayed.  Someone else who is on to something is OFK who finds the damage statistics from the flooding very suspicious:

Beyond that, things are less certain.  North Korea officially claims that the floods killed 300 people and left 300,000 homeless.  Those figures don’t jibe with each other.  In a mountainous and underdeveloped country, any disaster large enough to make more than a quarter of a million people homeless — the size of a small city — would have claimed more lives. 

OFK also links to this Bloomberg report that offers plenty dubious statistics as well:

The UN said today that 58,000 homes were damaged in the flooding, 50 percent of the country’s health clinics were destroyed, and as much as 70 percent of arable land was under water. More than 800 public buildings, 540 bridges, 70 sections of railway and 500 high-voltage power towers also were destroyed, according to the UN.  [Bloomberg]

It doesn’t make sense that the Arirang Mass Games would continue if these statistics that represent a nation wide mass disaster are true.  That is because these statistics are probably not true and the flooding is being used as a convenient excuse to delay the summit  to October so it has maximum impact on the South Korean presidential election, allow NK to have more time to make demands, ask for increased international aid that will not be monitored, as well as exact maximum propaganda value from the summit:

Moreover, October is a month for a series of celebrations in the North. October 8 marks the 10th anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s inauguration as the Secretary General of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP), while the 9th marks the first anniversary of the country’s nuclear test, and the 10th is the 62nd anniversary of the foundation of the KWP. If the South Korean president’s visit to Pyongyang coincides with these dates, North Korean propagandists could likely attempt to make the most of it. [Donga Ilbo]

Finally the biggest reason for playing up the flooding damage is that President Roh can use it as cover when he locks South Korea into an extended bribery yearly humanitarian aid package to North Korea.  He can claim it is the "North Korean Marshall Plan" to rebuild the country after the flooding.  Talk about a well time flood.  I bet Roh and Kim were both jumping at the chance to delay the summit when the rain started falling.