Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Seoul (Fides Service) - A humanitarian alarm with regard the food situation in North Korea was launched yesterday by the United Nations’ World Food Programme WFP. “While the international community provided immediate aid for people involved in the Ryongchon train disaster in North Korea, millions more people in North Korea risk malnutrition and starvation”, said Tony Banbury WHO director for WFP Asia speaking in Seoul. “We must not forget that a vast humanitarian crisis continues to deprive many, especially women and children, of basic food, clean water and decent medical assistance”.
Banbury said donations to help 1,300 injured and 8,000 made homeless because of the Ryongchon train crash amounted to 30 million dollars, but annual humanitarian aid for North Korea is never more than 21 million. The UN agency warned that the food available will only feed 6.5 until October and that after than food rations will be drastically reduced.
The World Food Programme thanked the South Korean government for a donation of 100.000 tonnes of grain and in cooperation with other NGOs including Caritas, it hopes to continue providing aid for people in North Korea, so as not to take a step backwards in the country’s standards of nutrition and food security.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 7/5/2004 lines 23 words 244)
