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| Korea |
| Aid worker says North Korea faces famine as foreign aid plunges |
| 2003-02-20 |
| HONG KONG - North Korea could soon face another deadly famine unless foreign donors resume food supplies cut off because of the current nuclear standoff, a leading aid official said Wednesday. "The people are living on the edge. It doesn't need much until we could slip back into the hunger of 1995-1997," Kathi Zellweger of the charity Caritas Hong Kong said upon her return from the isolated country. Zellweger, one of the few foreigners allowed to visit North Korea regularly, said the country began to suffer huge cutbacks in foreign aid when U.S. officials confronted Pyongyang over its alleged nuclear program. Alleged? "The political tensions now of course are making donors think more carefully," she said. "We have to continue as we are helping people in need, and we do not like to mix humanitarian aid and politics." The United Nations says donors have only provided 6.7 percent of the US$225 million in supplies North Korea sought so far this year. Its World Food Program, the North's biggest food supplier, has been forced to cut its rations to some 3 million people, including children, pregnant women and the elderly, and close down subsidized factories that produce biscuits. Looks like things are tough all over... "I do believe if no aid is forthcoming in the next few months, we will have severe crisis again in early summer," Zellweger warned. Let 'em eat nukes. North Korea has depended on foreign aid to feed its people since its farming industry collapsed in the mid-1990s after decades of inefficiency and the loss of Soviet subsidies. Some 2 million people are believed to have died because of famine since 1995. Kinda makes the Juche idea look like a load of crap, doesn't it? Officials are pleading for more food aid as their stock will run out in a few months, Zellweger said. She said the country also needs donations of medical and agricultural supplies. Zellweger said despite fewer cases of acute malnutrition among North Koreans in recent years, many people lack basic foods such as eggs, fish and meat and rely on diets based solely on starch. The solution? Let's have a big parade for Kimmie. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |