2nd typhoon threatens battered Korean Peninsula

The first storm, Typhoon Bolaven, left at least 11 people dead in South Korea, seven of them fishermen killed in wrecks off the southern coast. Damage in North Korea, which was hit late Tuesday and early Wednesday, wasn't completely clear, though state media reported that the storm knocked out power, ruined farm land and cut off power to some residents.

Typhoon Tembin, meanwhile, was expected to reach South Korea starting Thursday, its outer bands hitting North Korea on Friday.

Tembin is expected to weaken as it reaches North Korea. Heavy rain, however, often means catastrophe in North Korea because of poor drainage, deforestation and decrepit infrastructure.

Weather officials had warned that Bolaven would be the strongest typhoon to hit the region in several years, but its gusts in other parts of Asia weren't as powerful as predicted.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported that Bolaven tore off a power station's roof, cut power lines in Kaesong city and damaged many hectares of farmland, hurting the chances of a successful harvest.

Strong winds and rain lashed Pyongyang, the North's capital, Tuesday, but there was little apparent damage there. Cars splashed through shallow standing water on one street, spraying people on a crowded sidewalk.

Thousands of young people had been brought to Pyongyang to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the country's main youth political organization. The young delegates toured various places in Pyongyang on Tuesday, state media said, and leader Kim Jong Un visited a military unit on the country's eastern border with the South, despite torrential rain.

In South Korea, Bolaven temporarily left hundreds of thousands without power, canceled flights, left nearly 100 families homeless and damaged farm land. The storm also churned up rough seas that smashed two Chinese fishing ships into rocks off southern Jeju island, killing seven and leaving eight missing.

Dangerous waves kept rescue vessels from approaching the wrecked fishing ships. The coast guard used a special gun to shoot rope to one ship so officers could pull themselves over and bring the fishermen back to shore, coast guard spokesman Ko Chang-keon said.

The coast guard rescued 12 fishermen, and six others swam or were washed ashore.

The storm killed at least four other people across South Korea. A large container box crushed an apartment janitor to death, a woman fell to her death from a rooftop and another person died after bricks hit a house, according to disaster and fire officials. An 80-year-old man died after a small makeshift building fell on him, officials said. A man who was first reported to have died after being hit by a falling tree actually died of a heart attack while cleaning debris, officials later said.

The storms come as North Korea tries to help people with food, shelter, health care and clean water after heavy flooding in July, according to a recent United Nations situation report. More than 170 died nationwide, and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed in the floods, according to official North Korean accounts.

Many flood victims still live in tents with limited access to water and other basic facilities, the U.N. report said, and there is worry about increased malnutrition in coming weeks.