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Axis of Evil
It's getting pretty hungry in NKor...
2003-01-04
The United Nations food agency warned yesterday that supplies for some seven million people, a third of North Korea's population, will run out early next month without furtheraid. The news could worsen the crisis over North Korea's nuclear threats.
I am so afraid of the mighty North Korean war machine! Oh, hold me, Irene!
"We only have firm commitments for 35,000 tons. This will be finished in early February, and then we might have to close shop," said Gerald Bourke, the spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Beijing. South Korea stopped food deliveries two months ago, after Pyongyang admitted running a secret nuclear weapons programme. Japan suspended aid after North Korea admitted kidnapping Japanese citizens.
"Hey, Lee! You want some of this nuke? It's really very tasty..."
The WFP has cut three million people off from its aid programme. The hardest-hit are townspeople who can expect to get only 270 grams a day through North Korea's public distribution system, half the standard emergency food ration. The UN scaled back its 2003 appeal for North Korea by 16 per cent, to 512,000 tons of grain, but only the European Union and Italy individually have so far responded.
"Hi, honey! I'm home! What's for dinner?"
"We're having braised artillery shells, and I've made a nice antitank stew."
North Korea has suffered from gross mismanagement famine for a decade, and at least two million people have died of starvation. The US has been the largest contributor to emergency food deliveries over the past seven years which have fed nine million people a year. Although George Bush has said the US will not withhold food, the US Agency for International Development began insisting last June that North Korea meet the same conditions for aid that are mandatory elsewhere, such as providing a list of beneficiaries and unimpeded access for aid monitors. On this issue, however, as with efforts to defuse the nuclear crisis, there is deadlock.
"We refuse to compromise our national dignity to be treated like we were Zambia or someplace. Are you gonna eat that? Sure looks succulent!"
"That's my hat."
Posted by:Fred Pruitt

#1  Hey, maybe Bob Mugabe could ship 'em his "surplus population" to snack on. Or maybe the other way around.
Posted by: mojo   2003-01-05 02:05:47  

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