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UN agencies warn of impending N.Korea food crisis http://today.reuters.com/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L22317250
Fri 22 Dec 2006
(Adds stunted children in paragraph 6, harsher winter in 9)
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Dec 22 (Reuters) - United Nations aid agencies warned on Friday of an impending food crisis in North Korea where summer flooding destroyed crops and worsened a chronic shortage of grain.
"The situation is indeed critical," Simon Pluess, spokesman of the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP), told a news briefing.
"About a third of the population never eats enough and half of the population goes for periods in the year when they have an insufficient food intake."
North Korea has still not recovered from famine in the 1990s that experts say killed about 2.5 million people, or 10 percent of the population. Major storms in July damaged grain-producing areas and triggered a new round of scarcities.
The reclusive country is estimated to have at least a 1 million tonne cereal deficit in 2007.
One in three North Korean children are already chronically malnourished, stunting their growth, he said.
Foreign assistance for Pyongyang has fallen sharply after the Stalinist government restricted aid agencies' access, the agencies said.
The WFP is feeding only 700,000 of the 1.9 million North Koreans it has identified as needing food aid. This was because it received just 15 percent of the $102 million it sought for the country this year, Pluess said.
Breaks in the "aid pipeline", which are already affecting vulnerable people, including mothers and children, are "expected to be progressively worse through the harsh North Korean winter unless adequate resources are committed immediately," he said.
"The situation is likely to translate into increased malnutrition rates," Pluess said. Analysts believe North Korea cannot produce enough food for itself even in the best crop years, and much of the food is diverted to the military.
SEVERE FLOODING
Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman for the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), said severe flooding in four provinces had "decimated" North Korean food production.
He noted children especially have been "victims of ongoing political turmoil which has seen a reduction in international assistance".
North Korea triggered widespread international condemnation and U.N.-backed sanctions after it carried out its first nuclear test in October.
"What is clear is that the nutritional status of children is falling, they are very vulnerable as it is.
"We are reminding donors today to look beyond politics and renew their support of humanitarian programmes in the country," Bociurkiw said.
UNICEF has received less than half of the $11.2 million it sought this year for North Korea where it is working in education, water and sanitation, and health.
"So additional funding is immediately required to ensure basic services for women and children in 2007," he said.
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