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New Food Crisis Imminent For North Korea
CBC News
North Korea
July 26, 2005
The United Nations says a combination of rising food prices and scarce international aid threatens to cause another serious food shortage in North Korea.
According to the UN World Food Program, international aid agencies in North Korea are running short of food and as a result people are being forced to eat acorns and grass.
Gerald Bourke of the WFP called the shortages "acute."
"We don't have enough food. We seek and continue to seek to impress upon donors the dire needs of millions of very many women, children and elderly people in North Korea," he said.
About one in three North Koreans are chronically malnourished and the increasing price of food staples, according to the UN, is skyrocketing.
"The price of rice, over the past 12 months, has gone up three-fold," said Bourke, "the price of corn has gone up four-fold. So food in the markets is beyond the reach of very many people."
The Stalinist country has relied on foreign aid since mid-1990s when its farm system collapsed following decades of mismanagement and the loss of Soviet subsidies.
Meanwhile, after a one-year pause, the first day of talks aimed at ending the crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions have ended in Beijing.
The six nation nuclear talks started on a positive note with all nations, even North Korea, agreeing that progress is needed after nearly three years of negotiations.
But in spite of the upbeat signals, distrust is still great.
A North Korean source told Russia's Interfax news agency that major disagreements remain.
Representatives from the United States, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia began the nuclear disarmament talks, with the U.S. pushing for progress after the previous three rounds failed to end North Korea's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
Pyongyang abandoned the talks last year and has since claimed it already possesses nuclear weapons, heightening tension over what the International Atomic Energy Agency calls the world's most dangerous nuclear proliferation issue.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan released a statement on Tuesday saying he "hopes that the resumed session will achieve substantive progress towards a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula that is stable, secure and prosperous."
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