PRESS CONFERENCE ON DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA

More than 6 million people in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea might face life-threatening shortages of food, basic medicines and clean drinking water unless donor countries acted quickly, Kenzo Oshima, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told correspondents at Headquarters this afternoon.

At a joint press conference with Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Emergency Children's Fund (UNICEF), and Jim Morris, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Mr. Oshima said that a large segment of the country's 22 million people already suffered from the cumulative effects of chronic malnutrition, a fractured economic infrastructure, inadequate food production and deteriorating social services.

He said food needs amounted to more than $230 million -- 80 per cent -- of the $258 million requested for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea under last November's United Nations Consolidated Inter-agency Appeal for 2002.  Only $23.5 million -- less than 10 per cent of requirements -- had been received to date.

Highlighting progress in averting a crisis in the country, Ms. Bellamy said external donor assistance combined with government efforts had contributed to a significant decrease in severe malnutrition since the late 1990s.  However, there was still widespread chronic malnutrition.  In addition, the polio national immunization days had been a resounding success and the country was expected to be certified polio-free with the rest of East Asia.

She emphasized that having seen such improvements, the low donor funding was particularly troublesome.  For UNICEF, it meant deciding between providing vital drugs or very vital drugs.  The agency was unable to give the full-scale support for immunization that it could otherwise provide.  The intertwined issues of health and nutrition were always funded less than food items, she pointed out.

Also highlighting progress made in the nutrition area, Mr. Morris said the WFP's real concern was that those gains were now at substantial risk.  WFP had received only about half of the 600,000 tonnes of wheat and other commodities it had requested at the beginning of the year to feed some 6.4 million people.

He warned that in order to keep feeding very young children, orphans, pregnant and nursing women, WFP would have to suspend feeding programmes for the elderly and for secondary children in May.  He appealed to donors who had been generous in the past to be sensitive to their plight.

Asked why contributions had been so slow, Mr. Oshima replied that key donor countries like the Republic of Korea, and some European countries, had made some pledges and commitments.  Unfortunately, none had been received from traditional contributors like the United States and Japan.

Ms. Bellamy noted that some countries had remained forgotten emergencies.  The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, with a relatively limited number of donors, had fallen further down the list.  It would be more efficient to deal with such cases now, rather than waiting until world attention fell further off.

Mr. Morris added that WFP had received support from the United States, Finland and the Republic of Korea for the current period.  It was hopeful that those donors that had helped in the past would now focus on the more than a million who would be severely at risk.

In response to another question, Ms. Bellamy told another correspondent that the United Nations Consolidated Inter-agency Appeal took into account the important role played by non-governmental organizations.

Asked how much the United States had pledged and how much it had paid to date, Mr. Morris said that for the 2001, the United States had pledged

$102 million against $243 million received in total.  It had pledged 339 metric tons of supplies against a total of 812,000 tonnes received.

Mr. Oshima said the United States had contributed $103 million for 2001.

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