Needy countries compete for aid

HONG KONG, China -- The worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, as well as the slowdown in global economy has pitted impoverished countries against each other for a slice of the aid from donor countries.

The United Nations noted Wednesday that the worsening humanitarian crisis in war-torn Afghanistan has caught worldwide attention, and getting aid for other needy countries could be a difficult feat.

Among the aid-dependent countries in Asia, communist North Korea stands to lose a large chunk of the aid allotted to it.

The United Nations said it called for $258 million aid package for North Korea for 2002.

But U.N. representatives admitted that getting the aid could be tough considering the competition from other crisis-hit areas, and strained relations with donors due to Pyongyang's abrasive character.

"This year we are faced with competing demands in the world for the limited resources available for operations such as the plans for (North) Korea," Rick Corsino, the U.N. acting resident and humanitarian coordinator for North Korea told Reuters news agency.

"Afghanistan will draw -- no doubt about it -- from that pool of resources," he said.

North Korea has suffered severe food shortages as a result of floods and droughts in recent years.

Its economy has also been in crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union led to the withdrawal of aid and subsidized trade.

The U.N. says malnutrition is rampant in North Korea, which has stunted many people as a result.

The country also has severe shortages of electricity, heating, clean water and drugs.

Last year, the U.N. appealed for $383 million in aid for North Korea. But the need for aid is less this year as the harvest has improved.

Pyongyang appears to expect aid to continue to flow in despite the competing crises around the world, Corsino said.

"When we highlight our grave concerns about our ability to resource even the smallest project for 2002, the government's position seems to be that things will more or less carry on as they have in the past," he said.

"We've tried to explain to them that conditions have in fact changed and that they cannot rely on what has happened in the past. I'm not sure if they believe that yet."

Waning enthusiasm

Aid also poured in for North Korea last year as expectations ran high that the North was serious about beginning to open up following a summit with the South in Pyongyang, and a visit by then U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

A lack of progress since then has been discouraging, Corsino said.

"I think a year ago there were more expectations of an improved dialogue between (North) Korea and the major donors than there are today, and one might guess that could work against increasing the donations or even maintaining them," Corsino said.

Major donors, which include the United States, Japan and South Korea, appeared less willing to keep giving aid to the North in the quantities due to its abrasive personality.

Japan was the largest World Food Programme contributor to North Korea this year.

It donated some 500,000 tones of rice "on the expectation that there would be a much greater dialogue between North Korea and Japan.

But Corsino said that Japanese parliamentarians were apparently turned off by domestic political conditions this year.

North Korea renewed its tough stance and put reconciliation programs with South on hold, saying the anti-terrorism measures Seoul implemented after September 11 had ruined the atmosphere for cooperation.

The two sides have been technically in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armed truce that has not been replaced by a peace treaty.

The United States, on the other hand, considers North Korea a "rogue state" and a sponsor of terrorism.

This week the U.S. accused North Korea of probably violating the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, which bans germ warfare.