Aid Helps N. Korea, But More Needed To Fight Famine

Emergency food shipments to North Korea have helped avert widespread death and malnutrition, but the country still needs much more help to fight a famine, a U.N. official said Sunday.

“The situation still remains serious … but it was not the level of desperation that was expected,” said Namanga Ngongi, deputy director of the World Food Program, after a five-day visit to the communist state.

North Korea’s farm production was devastated by severe floods in 1995-96. The country’s hopes of better crops this year were shattered by a drought and later by a typhoon.

Ngongi, the World Food Program’s deputy executive director, said estimates show North Korea will need between 2 million and 2.5 million tons of food, about half what is needed to feed the nation’s 24 million people.

“While the international community has really helped to stave off … large-scale malnutrition, deaths and massive movements of people, the effort which has been made this year pales before the effort which needs to be made for the next crop year,” he said.

This year, North Korea’s food shortfall was 1.3 million tons. The international community has responded by providing 700,000 to 800,000 tons of aid, Ngongi said.