North Korea 'faces food crisis' North Korea is facing a humanitarian crisis caused by acute food shortages, a UN agency has warned.
The situation there was "clearly bad and getting worse", a senior World Food Programme official said, and help was needed to avert serious tragedy. North Korea has been dependent on international food aid for years. But severe flooding last year compounded its problems, devastating large swathes of agricultural land and leading to a poor harvest.
WFP estimates that 6.5 million North Koreans, out of a total population of 23 million, do not have enough to eat - and that this figure could rise. 'Help needed' Last month, the UN predicted North Korea would face a food deficit of 1.66 million metric tons this year - twice that of 2007. Food prices in Pyongyang had also doubled over the past year, presenting serious problems for residents, the WFP said. "It is obvious that more food imports and external food aid will be needed this year. " "WFP cannot solve the problem on our own," he said. Experts, former prisoner discuss North Korean humanitarian crisis For nine months, Guang-il Jung was confined to an underground cell, beaten with a wooden club until his teeth fell out, handcuffed to an iron bar to prevent him from sleeping, hung upside down and denied a toilet and clean clothes.
“Even if I screamed, nobody heard,” he said through a translator on Saturday. Jung’s was just one of many tales of human rights abuses discussed at a conference held over the weekend at Stanford U. on “The North Korean Crisis: Human Stories & Taking Action.” Jung was joined by David Hawk, former executive director of Amnesty International USA, Dan Chung, communications director of Chicago-based NGO Crossing Borders, and Sharon Perry, a senior researcher at Stanford School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases.
Jung, 47, relayed his harrowing story as a political prisoner in North Korea. “Later, I became too weak,” he said. In April 2003, Jung was deemed acceptable for release if he swore not to tell anyone about the camp. Food Crisis Hits North Korea. As North Korea tests its expanding arsenal of deadly weapons, millions of its most vulnerable people face grave food shortages.
SEOUL—North Korean families are feeling the pinch following Pyongyang's refusal of U.S. food aid earlier this year, with the United Nations saying it already sees a humanitarian crisis in the isolated Stalinist state. Manipulating humanitarian crisis in North Korea. An estimated 3.5 million North Koreans may have died from starvation and related illnesses between 1995 and 1998, and more than 8m – over a third of the population – are in need of food aid.
North Korea is in the midst of acute humanitarian crisis. Even with one of the largest allocations of food aid in the world – almost a million tonnes annually – famine will persist; many North Koreans subsist on roots and edible grasses. This crisis is unfolding within one of the world’s most secretive, closed and inaccessible states, with a regime that appears impervious to the terrible conditions in which the bulk of North Koreans live. In the face of complete economic collapse and virtually total international isolation, the regime continues to proclaim socialism’s imminent victory over the West, and to eulogise the near-mythical figure of its Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Collusion and shadow plays. North Korea's humanitarian crisis goes beyond Ryongchon.
SEOUL - While the international community has rushed to the rescue of victims of last month's deadly train explosion in North Korea, aid programmes to help millions of other needy people across the country remain critically under-funded, a senior United Nations official said today.
"The speed and scale of the response to appeals for the wounded and homeless of Ryongchon are as heart-warming as they are vital," Tony Banbury, the World Food Programme's director for Asia, told reporters in the South Korean capital, Seoul. "But we must not forget the broader humanitarian crisis that continues to deprive so many more of a very basic diet, drinkable water and decent healthcare. " Donors have committed almost US$30 million for victims of the 22 April blast near North Korea's border with China that claimed more than 170 lives, injured 1,300 and made nearly 8,000 homeless. The downturn in food donations risks eroding precious gains in nutritional standards. Gerald BourkeWFP/Seoul. North Korea's Pleas For Food Aid Draw Suspicion. The United Nations is warning that 6 million North Koreans — a quarter of the population — could be at risk of starvation.
It's warning of a likely humanitarian crisis, with North Korea's public distribution system set to run out of food in May. North Korean food shortages are no longer news, but this year Pyongyang has made unusually public pleas for food aid, raising fears as well as suspicions. hide captionThis undated photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency via the Tokyo-based Korean News Service shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il inspecting the Pyongyang Vegetable Science Institute in Pyongyang. KNS/AFP/Getty Images This undated photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency via the Tokyo-based Korean News Service shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il inspecting the Pyongyang Vegetable Science Institute in Pyongyang.
In North Korea, from May until July is called the "lean season. " "I would say they're dying of hunger-related causes. Starving plight of N Koreans revealed. U.N. Warns of Growing Food Crisis in North Korea.