U.N. Food Aid to North Korea to Be Cut
By: Associated Press
New York Times, May 1, 2002
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United Nations says it
will stop distributing food to more than 1 million children and elderly in
North Korea because of a shortfall in international aid, sparking fears of
a worsening humanitarian crisis in the country.
In November, the United Nations appealed for $258
million so U.N. agencies and international relief organizations could
respond to the most urgent needs in North Korea, but to date just $23.5
million has been pledged, Kenzo Oshima, the U.N.'s undersecretary-general
for humanitarian affairs, said Tuesday.
Eventually, unless donors act, the more than 6
million North Koreans currently fed by the U.N. World Food Program --
mainly women, children and the elderly -- ``may face acute and indeed
life-threatening shortages of food, medicines and clean drinking water,''
Oshima told a news conference.
In an initial cutback, the World Food Program is
suspending food distribution to more than 350,000 elderly people and
675,000 secondary school children in May, said James Morris, the agency's
new executive director.
The program will continue to supply food to the
groups most at risk -- orphans, young children and pregnant and nursing
women, he said.
But Morris said ``a little more than a million people
are going to be severely at risk come May because the resources simply
aren't there to meet the need.''
Earlier in April, the Rome-based agency warned that
North Korea -- a nation of 22 million -- would likely face a serious food
crisis this summer because the world was focused on helping Afghanistan.
In the past, the United States, South Korea and Japan
have been major contributors along with some European countries. But Japan
has not provided any assistance this year, Oshima said.
The World Food Program, the largest U.N. agency
operating in North Korea, has received some support for the current period
from the United States, Finland and South Korea, Morris said.
``I think it's fair to say there are a number of
countries that remain forgotten emergencies,'' said Carol Bellamy,
executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund. ``This is one.''
North Korea has relied on foreign donations to help
feed its people since 1995, when its secretive Stalinist regime revealed
that after decades of economic decline, its state-run farm industry had
collapsed.
U.N. officials have urged the North to reform its
inefficient collective farms, which they blame for most of the shortages.
North Korea says losses have been worsened by drought
and flooding and that at least 220,000 people have died of famine or
hunger-related diseases. U.S. congressional investigators say the true
death toll could be as high as 2 million.
The three U.N. officials said there has been
substantial progress in improving health and nutrition in North Korea, but
that hunger remains a chronic problem. Bellamy said supplies of sugar,
vitamins and minerals needed by youngsters are all but exhausted.
``We don't want to backslide on the progress we've
made,'' Morris said. ``We need pledges now, because once a pledge is made
it takes two to four months to get that food into the stomach of a hungry
North Korean.''
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