Saturday, August 14, 2004
Impoverished N Korea has declined UN aid from 2005: Reports
Reuters Tokyo, August 14
Impoverished North Korea has told the United Nations it did not need humanitarian aid from the world body from 2005, but did not give any reason, Kyodo news agency said on Saturday.
The report came a week after the communist state said torrential rain damaged crops and homes over swathes of the country, reviving memories of floods in 1995 that tipped chronic malnutrition into a famine that aid experts say killed more than a million people.
Sources in New York at the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) were quoted by Kyodo as saying no reason was given for the move, which was conveyed through an OCHA office in Pyongyang earlier this week.
Aid officials at the UN headquarters met with North Korean representatives on Friday to discuss the issue, but made no progress, with the North Koreans saying that they would seek directions from their government, Kyodo added. No further details were given.
North Korea depends on foreign aid to feed about a quarter of its 22.5 million people and the famine has forced hundreds of thousands of its people to seek refuge in neighbouring China.
Recent South Korean research shows that the North is expected to suffer food shortages of around one million tonnes in 2004 partly due to less fertiliser support from other countries, the South's Yonhap news agency has said.
The Kyodo report came a day after Washington said it wanted Pyongyang to respond to its June proposal for ending the communist nation's suspected nuclear arms programme.
Pyongyang dismissed last month the US proposals made at a third round of talks on its nuclear arms plan that would give North Korea multilateral energy aid after the communist state vows to dismantle its nuclear programmes and starts a verifiable disarmament process.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.