A summit that both nations eagerly expected was delayed due to the severe flooding North Korea is coping with, the event being expected to kick off in October.

Officials from North and South Korea agreed to postpone the conference that was scheduled to take place this month after massive flooding has affected most of the country and even the country’s capital Pyongyang.

The summit is bound to take place during the first days of October instead of August 28-30, a Seoul official informed on Saturday. North Korea reiterated its plans to hold sturdy talks with its neighbour adding that only a calamity like this one could have delayed the meeting of President Kim Jong Il with his South Korean counterpart Roh Moo Hyun.

At least 220 people died and thousands are marooned in the impoverished country after heavy rain fell for several days continuously and caused flash floods that took over entire crops or settlements.

Latest reports from the region informed that 300,000 people are displaced and 80 persons remain missing across the territory. The agricultural sector took a serious blow, one-tenth of the arable land being covered by murky waters. Most people rely on agriculture to provide food and money, but the rainy season came down hard on the nation.

Humanitarian agencies fear that a food shortage could grip the entire country and rushed to send supplies to the food-stricken region. A consistent aid is coming from South Korea, food, water, medicine and even construction materials arriving in the northern half of the Korean peninsula.

A first summit took place in 2001 and diplomatic ties between Pyongyang and Seoul got stronger after that meeting. From a technical point of view, both nations are still at war because the 1950-53 Korean War did not end with a peace treaty, but the October summit clearly aims at solving this aspect.