Up to 3.8 million North Koreans -- 17 percent of the country's people -- could be deprived of critical international food aid by the end of winter, the World Food Program (WFP) warned yesterday.
As the first snows fall, 2.2 million are already left out of WFP deliveries because of global cutbacks in donations, the WFP said in a statement. The group expects to have delivered 300,000 tonnes of food aid, only 62 percent of what it originally requested, this year.
The shortfall comes amid a standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs and other disputes that have tested international patience with the communist regime. Japan, once the North's biggest aid donor, has given nothing over the past two years, due in part to nuclear concerns.
Conditions in North Korea were also made worse by the government's recent economic reforms.
A survey conducted late last year in conjunction with the WFP found that 41 percent of North Korean children under age 7 suffered from chronic malnutrition and stunted growth.
Problems are likely to increase next year, the WFP said, because the North's government-run Public Distribution System plans to provide just 300 grams of food per person per day.
The WFP is seeking US$171 million for 485,000 tonnes of food aid for next year.
But if new pledges don't come soon, the number of people not reached by WFP rations is expected to swell to 3.8 million by early next year, the group said.
Recent advances against hunger are at risk from social adjustments unleashed by North Korea's dabbling in free-market economics. Prices have risen while wages have decreased, especially in urban areas outside the capital, Pyongyang.
RSS