A tropical storm that hit the Korean peninsula late last month washed away homes, factories and roads and caused unspecified casualties, the official news agency said Tuesday.

Heavy rain and strong winds brought by Tropical Storm Meari that hit the North from June 25-27 left some 160 homes and more than 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of farmland destroyed or submerged across the country, it said.

Several areas including the west coast regions saw casualties, it said without elaborating.

"Not a small number of production plants, public buildings, roads and riverbanks have been destroyed or submerged," the agency said.

Reconstruction efforts were under way in regions including South and North Hwanghae provinces in the west and Kangwon province on the east, it said.

It was unclear why it took the agency some long to report the damage.

After decades of deforestation, North Korea is particularly vulnerable to flooding. In 2007 it reported at least 600 dead or missing from devastating floods.

Meari left nine dead in South Korea and destroyed scores of homes, roads and farms across the country.

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