WFP appeals for urgent food aid for N. Korea

From Yonhap:
9/12/2006

The U.N. food agency said Tuesday that North Korean children may have to spend this year’s Christmas without food unless the country gets additional donations from abroad within the coming weeks.

John M. Powell, Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP), stressed that the WFP’s stockpiles for North Korea will dry up within the next two months without any fresh pledges.

“We expect to be running out of commodities within the next two months,” he told a press conference in Seoul.

He said it takes at least three or four months to translate a pledge into food that can be consumed by a hungry child.

“Unless we get a pledge in the next month or so, no one will eat after Christmas,” he said.

Powell said that his agency is struggling to accomplish its two-year project to provide food aid to the North due to a lack of donations.

He said his agency received only eight percent of the US$102 million required for its current two-year feeding program, which aims to feed 1.9 million people.

Powell said he met with South Korean officials earlier in the day and discussed ways of providing more aid to the North.

But he did not clarify whether he asked for South Korea’s contribution nor say how much, if any, was requested.

Seoul suspended its regular food and fertilizer aid to its communist neighbor after Pyongyang test-launched seven missiles in July.

It recently provided a one-time shipment of aid to the North, which suffered huge damage from summer floods.

North Korea has been depending on outside handouts to feed many of its 23 million population, and the WFP said it has been feeding some 6 million people there, mostly women, children, the sick and the elderly.

From the Korea Times:

The U.N. food agency said Tuesday that North Korean children may have to spend this year’s Christmas without food unless the country gets additional donations from abroad within the coming weeks.
John M. Powell, deputy executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), stressed that its stockpiles for North Korea will dry up within the next two months without any fresh pledges.

“We expect to be running out of commodities within the next two months,’’ he told a press conference in Seoul.

He said it takes at least three or four months to translate a pledge into food that can be consumed by a hungry child.

“Unless we get a pledge in the next month or so, no one will eat after Christmas,’’ he said.

Powell said that his agency is struggling to accomplish its two-year project to provide food aid to the North due to a lack of donations.

He said his agency received only eight percent of the $102 million required for its current two-year feeding program, which aims to feed 1.9 million people.

Powell said he met with South Korean officials earlier in the day and discussed ways of providing more aid to the North.

But he did not clarify whether he asked for a South Korean contribution nor did he say how much, if any, was requested.

Seoul suspended its regular food and fertilizer aid to its communist neighbor after Pyongyang test-launched seven missiles in July.

It recently provided a one-time shipment of aid to the North, which suffered huge damage from summer floods.

North Korea has been depending on outside handouts to feed many of its 23 million population, and the WFP said it has been feeding some 6 million people there, mostly women, children, the sick and the elderly.

Share

Comments are closed.