WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME GETS TWO MONTHS BREATHING SPACE IN DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
Press Release
WFP/1026
WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME GETS TWO MONTHS BREATHING SPACE IN DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
19960118 ROME, 18 January (WFP) -- The World Food Programme (WFP) today announced that it has raised enough funds to keep its operations in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for half a million hungry flood victims running until the end of March.Programme officials said a further $1 million had been donated, from Switzerland and Norway, for the operations, allowing the WFP Pyongyang office to remain open for another two months. Despite urgent appeals for aid, only Denmark and Finland had previously contributed $505,000.
"Although we're grateful for the new pledges, it really only buys us just a little more time", said WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini. "Much more is needed. Altogether, several million people are at risk of starvation, including 2.5 million women and children."
The WFP office in Pyongyang -- the first resident office every opened in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea by an international humanitarian agency -- will be back to full staffing levels by early February. Three of the four resident expatriate staff members had been pulled out at the end of the year because of poor donor response to the Programme's appeals for funds.
The WFP, the food aid arm of the United Nations, warned that significant funding will still needed to carry out their $8.8 million relief plan to feed the half million flood victims just for 90 days. Only $1.5 million has been committed by donors to date.
The Programme's field workers describe horrendous conditions in the flood-stricken areas, with old women seen desperately foraging fields and digging into underground animal burrows for roots and seeds to eat. Temperatures in the country routinely plunge to minus 15 centigrade during the winter months.
The WFP delivered an initial shipment of 5,140 tons of rice to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on 24 November last year. Plans for the second shipment are being finalized. The new donations will cover approximately 2,000 tons of food.
- 2 - Press Release WFP/1026 18 January 1996
The operations, which began after Pyongyang made an unprecedented appeal for international aid, marks the first United Nations food aid ever sent to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Under an agreement reached with Pyongyang, the WFP has been given access to remote parts of the country, areas never before visited by international humanitarian agencies, and has monitored the distribution of their food.
A joint WFP/Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) team, which visited the country from 9 to 16 December 1995, reported that 2.1 million children and about half a million pregnant and nursing women risked starvation in North Korea. The mission warned that malnutrition would rise considerably in the coming months unless food aid was provided.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's total grain requirement for this year is estimated at about 6 million tons. The mission found that production, imports and already committed food aid would only cover 4.8 million tons, leaving a shortfall of some 1.2 million tons.
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