North Korea's official newspaper on Monday criticized officials in flood-hit eastern areas for carrying out flood prevention projects along rivers and streams in an irresponsible manner.

"Workers in Sinhung County carried out water management efforts on rivers and streams where they were supposed to be focused in a very irresponsible manner just hoping for a luck," the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North's ruling party, said in an article.

"In such counties as Hongwon and Hwadae as well, there was a tendency that people passed responsibility to each other and perfunctorily worked on management of rivers and streams," the paper added.

The paper also said that their irresponsibility has disrupted water management work and revealed "grave flaws," which resulted in "serious consequences.

Those cited counties are in the country's eastern province of Hamgyong hard-hit by recent heavy downpours. State media earlier said that large swathes of farming land and houses there were inundated with levies and banks destroyed.

Last month, Premier Kim Tok-hun inspected flood damage in areas including Sinhung and Hongwo counties and called for speedy recovery.

North Korea has ramped up calls for effective land and water management as it wants to prevent the repeat of last year's devastation caused by back-to-back typhoons and flooding, which aggravated the country's already serious food shortage.

In June, leader Kim Jong-un said at a party meeting that his country's "food situation is now getting tense as the agricultural sector failed to fulfill its grain production plan" due to damage from typhoons last year. (Yonhap)