North Korea’s Food Supply Will Run Out By End Of June, U.N. Official Warns

North Korea’s food supply, already exhausted in some parts of the hunger-stricken country, will run out by June 20, a U.N. official said Tuesday.

After that, people will be dependent on foreign food aid, food imports, and whatever roots, weeds and other nourishment they can scavenge until harvests are gathered later this year, said Rolf Huss, a U.N. World Food Program official.

Huss said he saw malnourished children and adults but did not see people dying of hunger during a 10-day visit to North Korea to assess the scale of food shortages. The crisis was precipitated by severe floods in 1995-96 that ruined harvests.

Communist North Korea hands out what little grain and other staples it has through a public distribution system, meaning people are gradually starving together, aid workers say. They fear widespread famine without large-scale food aid this summer.

On Monday, the South Korean Red Cross pledged to deliver 50,000 tons of food - enough to feed 600,000 people for six months - by August.

But Huss said North Korea will still have a food shortage of 1.1 million tons this year, even with imports and aid. The World Food Program is trying to raise 200,000 tons of food, the maximum it feels it can distribute effectively.

Huss said rations are now down to between 3.5 ounces and 7 ounces of grain a day per person, “which is definitely too little to sustain good health.”

North Korean officials say the last public stocks of grain and other staples will be handed out by June 20, and already have been exhausted in some areas, Huss said in an interview.

Those rations may last two to four weeks, so “coming into July, the food stocks … will be finished,” he said.