Efforts to feed starving North Koreans are being hit by dwindling donations, the World Food Programme (WFP) said yesterday, as defectors reported a deadly clash between troops and workers trying to loot a food train.
Months of shortfalls in donations mean the WFP can carry out only 15 percent of its planned food aid operation, Lena Savelli, a spokeswoman for the UN body, said in an online report.
The agency had so far received contributions of US$22.7 million, just 4.5 percent of the US$504 million needed for its emergency operations in North Korea this year, she said.
Two million people — only one-third of the 6.2 million originally targeted — were receiving food aid, she said, and even they were receiving only incomplete rations of fortified foods.
Savelli voiced concern over the “very negative impact” on the people.
“The country is soon to enter the critical ‘lean season’ when food stocks from last year’s harvest run low. In certain parts of North Korea, particularly in the northeast, high levels of malnutrition are anticipated,” she said.
Donations for the North’s people have dwindled amid international irritation over the regime’s missile and nuclear programs. The North has also rejected some aid because of political tensions.
Lynn Pascoe, a UN undersecretary general, visited some of the world body’s humanitarian projects in the North last month.
The initiatives were about one-quarter of what they should be amid “donor fatigue,” he said at the time.
The North suffered famine in the 1990s which killed hundreds of thousands. It has relied on international aid since then to help feed its 24 million people.
NK Intellectuals Solidarity, a Seoul-based North Korean defector group, said yesterday that about 30 hungry railway workers clashed with police and troops after trying to loot a food train.
It said worker Cho Sung-koo was shot dead by armed guards before troops moved in to restore order.
The unrest occurred on Feb. 16, the North’s biggest public holiday marking leader Kim Jong-il’s birthday, at Komusan station in North Hamkyong Province, the group said.
“The railway workers turned extremely violent after one of them was shot dead at the scene, wielding hoes and pouncing on the guards,” group spokesman Lee Se-yeul said, citing contacts in the North.
“Police had to move in to calm down the unrest, which was brought under control only after military troops were brought in,” Lee said.
He said all those involved, including a guard responsible for the killing, were arrested and may face harsh punishment.
The persistent food crisis has worsened since a bungled currency revaluation on Nov. 30, reports say.
The move was intended to rein in a nascent free-market economy, but analysts said it disrupted the distribution system, intensifying food shortages and fuelling inflation amid public anger.
The Daily NK online newspaper said the price of rice in the border city of Sinuiju had soared from 25 won per kilogram in late December to 1,000 won on Wednesday — four times the state-set official price.
Officials in Seoul and aid groups say already severe food shortages are expected to worsen this year after last year’s poor grain harvest.
A state-run research institute says the North is expected to face a grain shortfall of 1.29 million tonnes this year, equivalent to almost four months’ food supply.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS