Seven million Koreans facing starvation

[marc.garrett]

Seven million Koreans facing starvation
By Jasper Becker in Beijing
05 January 2003
The United Nations food agency warned yesterday that supplies for some seven
million people, a third of North Korea's population, will run out early next
month without furtheraid. The news could worsen the crisis over North
Korea's nuclear threats.

"We only have firm commitments for 35,000 tons. This will be finished in
early February, and then we might have to close shop," said Gerald Bourke,
the spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Beijing. South Korea
stopped food deliveries two months ago, after Pyongyang admitted running a
secret nuclear weapons programme. Japan suspended aid after North Korea
admitted kidnapping Japanese citizens.

The WFP has cut three million people off from its aid programme. The
hardest-hit are townspeople who can expect to get only 270 grams a day
through North Korea's public distribution system, half the standard
emergency food ration. The UN scaled back its 2003 appeal for North Korea by
16 per cent, to 512,000 tons of grain, but only the European Union and Italy
individually have so far responded.

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