N.Korea food shortage growing serious - WFP chief
Tue 9 Aug 2005
SEOUL, Aug 9 (Reuters) - People in North Korea are foraging for nuts and leaves to counter a serious food shortage but there is no danger of widespread famine or starvation, the head of the U.N. World Food Programme said on Tuesday.
James Morris, the WFP's executive director said commodity prices have gone up in the impoverished state, food stocks have dwindled, and nascent economic reforms have only made it more difficult for North Korea's poor and urban dwellers to buy food.
"Our sense is that the food situation in North Korea is particularly serious right now," Morris told reporters in Seoul.
But he said the current situation is not as dire as in the mid-1990s when more than an estimated one million North Koreans died in a famine brought about by years of poor harvests and mismanagement of the country's agricultural sector.
"Famine implies lots and lots of people dying. I don't see that will be the case," Morris said.
He said the WFP has made great strides in reducing malnutrition among children in North Korea as part of its programme to feed about 6.5 million people in the country with a population of about 22.5 million.
Signs that the current food shortage have grown more severe include fewer livestock on farms and more people foraging in the countryside for anything they can eat, he said.
In some places, daily government rations have been cut from 200 grams to 250 grams of staples such as rice -- less than two bowls -- and Morris said the rations were less than half of what an individual needs.
North Korea has spent heavily for decades to develop nuclear weapons and regional powers are trying to convince Pyongyang to abandon its atomic ambitions in exchange for economic aid and security guarantees.
"Highly controversial issues like nuclear programmes make it often times more difficult for political leaders to generate public support among their voters and their citizens for humanitarian work at places where political relationships are a bit strained," Morris said.
SIX-PARTY TALKS
The pressing food shortage is seen as partially contributing to Pyongyang's decision to return to the six-party talks, which had been stalled for more than a year before they resumed in late July.
Analysts said if North Korea had continued to boycott the talks, international donors could have grown more reluctant to supply Pyongyang with food aid.
Last week, Morris went on an inspection tour of army-ruled Myanmar and said one-third of the young children there are chronically malnourished, while many others are too poor to get an education.
Morris, who visited army-rule Myanmar last week, said the food shortage in North Korea was different from that of the southeast Asian Myanmar were of a different nature. Myanmar has a strong agricultural sector, whereas North Korea, with less arable land, has not grown produced enough food to feed its population.
"Myanmar clearly has and agricultural surplus. This is a resource-rich country," Morris said, adding Myanmar's problems were "a matter of distribution and free movement of people and products."
North Korea, on the other hand, needs outside help now, Morris said.
"We have a crisis in front of us that requires the international community to respond, and provide resources so that we can do our work," he said.
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