WFP MAY BE FORCED TO CLOSE OPERATIONS FOR HUNGRY PEOPLE IN DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
Press Release
WFP/1022
WFP MAY BE FORCED TO CLOSE OPERATIONS FOR HUNGRY PEOPLE IN DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
19951213 ROME, 13 December (WFP) -- If donor countries do not immediately come forward with contributions, the World Food Programme (WFP) will be forced to shut down its operations for half a million hungry people left destitute by recent floods in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, WFP warned today.WFP officials announced they would close their Pyongyang office on 15 January if no new contributions are forthcoming. WFP will begin phasing out of the country on 20 December, officials said.
WFP's operations in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, aimed at helping 500,000 people left hungry after the worst rains in the country in 100 years, marks the first United Nations food aid ever sent to the country.
"We need help soon or we will have to pull out altogether", warned WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini.
WFP officials in Pyongyang said the food situation in the country is deteriorating rapidly. Winter temperatures have dropped to 15 degrees minus zero centigrade in the northern part of the country and fuel for heating is rapidly running out.
Because of acute food shortages, government rice and cabbage rations have been drastically reduced and famine conditions have already begun to take hold in some of the worst hit provinces, the rural northwestern provinces of Chagang and North Pyongang and the western province of North Hwanghae.
Most at risk are children under five and pregnant and nursing women, WFP field workers warned. In some of the affected areas, children are barely surviving on a diluted corn porridge.
WFP field officials said victims of the flooding have been seen foraging in recent-plowed paddy fields for roots to eat.
- 2 - Press Release WFP/1022 13 December 1995
WFP initially borrowed more than $2 million from emergency funds to send an initial shipment of 5,140 tons of rice to the flood-stricken country at the end of November. A chartered Russian freighter carried the rice to the port of Nampo as what was intended to be the first consignment in WFP's planned $8.8 million emergency food assistance programme.
The relief plan, now under threat of termination, had called for WFP to provide a total of 20,250 tons of rice and 675 tons of vegetable oil, to feed the half million hungry Koreans just for 90 days.
WFP launched the operation after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea made an unprecedented appeal for food aid. So far, only Denmark and Finland have contributed, a total of $204,965. Substantial bilateral aid has been given this year to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea by Japan and the Republic of Korea.
While distribution was handled by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's Ministry of Food Administration, WFP stationed international personnel in the country to monitor the process from arrival at the port to final distribution to the hungry in the countryside.
A United Nations fact-finding mission reported in September that the flooding in the country had caused "severe damage to agriculture, property, and infrastructure" and it estimated that up to 1.5 million tons of grain had been lost. A joint Food and Agriculture Organization-WFP team is presently assessing the overall food situation in the beleaguered country.
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