North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has attended a ceremony to dispatch young workers to flood-affected areas on the northern border, describing the restoration efforts as a "gigantic revolutionary construction campaign," state media said Wednesday. The border city of Sinuiju and Uiju County in North Phyongan Province were recently struck by heavy rains. While North Korea has not released detailed information on the damage, South Korean media outlets have reported that the number of dead or missing could exceed 1,000. The departure ceremony for the Paektusan Hero Youth Shock Brigade took place in Pyongyang on Tuesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency. The North's leader said that such restoration work would give a complete facelift to the territory, expressing confidence that the youth members would be a vanguard unit for socialist construction. He also mentioned that nearly 300,000 young people have volunteered for the recovery efforts in less than a week, emphasizing that such explosive voluntee ring enthusiasm is unparalleled in any other country. Kim's attendance is seen as a tactic to prevent large-scale ideological defection during a national crisis and to demonstrate to the outside world the regime's ability to overcome disaster situations on its own. Observers say Pyongyang is unlikely to accept Seoul's proposal for flood aid. Last Thursday, the South Korean government offered humanitarian aid to North Korea for the damage. North Korea has not yet responded through the inter-Korean liaison communication channel. Source: Yonhap News Agency