The United Nations World Food Program is appealing to the world to increase its response to the spectre of famine in North Korea.
In 1998, it is pleading for more than twice as much aid as has been offered during the past three years.
Since 1995 when floods first began in the poor Asian country, donations to the WFP fund have totaled $168.8 million (U.S.), providing for just under half a million tonnes of food.
The Canadian government and non-governmental groups contributed $3.26 million, 1.9 percent of the total.
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The United States, Japan, the European Union, South Korea and several Scandinavian countries have been the largest contributors.
Now, after three years of floods and then drought and despite the aid already sent, North Korea is sliding into catastrophe, according to WFP executive director Catherine Bertini.
“The international community must act now to prevent the present food shortage from developing into a famine situation,” Bertini said in a statement issued from Rome.
Double the amount
She called for more than double the aid, to $378.2 million(U.S.).
If the pledges are made, she said it will buy close to 658,000 tonnes of food for close to 7.5 million North Koreans, one-third of the population.
Bilateral donations are supposed to provide an additional 360,000 tonnes of food.
Bertini said the 1998 appeal is the largest in the history of the food program.
She said it will not resolve deeper problems in the communist country’s economy but there is no time for that now.
She said the focus of the food aid will be on more than five million children, half a million hospital patients, 450,000 pregnant women and nursing mothers and half a million workers who will receive food rations for themselves and two dependents.
Since the first call for aid in 1995, the U.S. has been the most generous donor to North Korea.
Despite the fact that the two countries are at political odds, the U.S. has contributed more than $48 million – 28.8 percent of the total.
