N.Korea food aid needs may rise in 2001

September 27, 2000
Web posted at: 11:46 AM HKT (0346 GMT)

By David Brough

ROME (Reuters) -- North Koreans' food aid needs could rise in 2001 as prospects for this year's harvest are discouraging, the executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme said on Tuesday.

"There are some indications that the harvest may not be good this year," Catherine Bertini said at WFP's Rome headquarters, in reference to an extended drought. "We'll be looking at a mission there to assess the harvest."

She added: "It's possible that the food needs will increase next year beyond what they are this year."

North Korea, which relies on international charities to help feed its 22 million people, said on Monday it faces a grain shortage of 1.4 million tons due to the prolonged dry weather and a recent typhoon.

The drought has renewed concerns over the food supply after a famine which, according to a U.S. congressional report, killed an estimated two million people in North Korea since 1995.

Food aid delivered to North Koreans in recent years has eased food shortages.

Bertini said that WFP has had a major programme in North Korea since 1997 and was now serving one-third of the population.

She said she was optimistic that WFP's latest international appeal for aid to North Korea would be fully subscribed, in line with previous appeals since 1995.

The latest WFP appeal, announced on September 15, is for an additional 194,876 tons, enough to cover the immediate needs of the vulnerable populations for the next four months at a cost of nearly $100 million.

Massive food aid

The Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said North Korea faced grave food shortages again this year.

Bertini said that she would discuss WFP's operational needs in North Korea with the country's Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun on Thursday during his three-day visit to Rome, which begins on Wednesday.

"We'll be talking to the minister about our needs in terms of our monitoring capacity, the staff that we have to run the programme and various issues to ensure that WFP can properly monitor the food that comes into the country," she said.

"In addition we'll discuss the volume of aid. It is massive already. But there may be additional needs and we'll be discussing that as well," she added.

Bertini said that difficult economic conditions would hinder the country's ability to buy fertilisers and machinery.

FAO has estimated North Korea's total cereal production from November 1999 to October 2000 at 2.93 million tons. No figures were available for the previous period.

It said the country would require 1,331,000 tons of cereal imports, of which 210,000 tons could be imported commercially and 586,000 tons would arrive as emergency food aid.

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