UN expands food aid to NKorea

SEOUL – The UN World Food Programme (WFP), which has warned of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea due to a food shortage, yesterday announced that it reached a deal with Pyongyang to rapidly expand aid, and that a US ship carrying 37 000 tonnes of wheat had arrived in that country.

Flooding last year, higher commodity prices and political wrangling with major donor South Korea have pushed North Korea to a food shortfall similar to ones it faced about a decade ago when famine killed an estimated 1 million people, experts have said. The WFP said the agreement it reached with the North will allow it to expand its operation, previously aimed at feeding 1,2 million people, to feed more than 5 million in the country of about 23 million.North Korea also allowed the WFP to place more international aid workers on the ground and expand its operations to a greater number of counties in the impoverished country.The WFP estimates as many as 6 million North Koreans need food aid.The aid deal and arrival of US help come days after North Korea made a symbolic commitment to an international disarmament pact by blowing up the cooling tower at its plutonium-producing nuclear plant, and provided documents on its nuclear programmes.South Korea usually sends about 400 000 tonnes of rice and a hefty amount of fertiliser a year to North Korea but has not sent the aid this year as ties soured between the two when President Lee Myung-bak took office in February and promised a tough line toward Pyongyang.Nampa-ReutersThe WFP said the agreement it reached with the North will allow it to expand its operation, previously aimed at feeding 1,2 million people, to feed more than 5 million in the country of about 23 million.North Korea also allowed the WFP to place more international aid workers on the ground and expand its operations to a greater number of counties in the impoverished country.The WFP estimates as many as 6 million North Koreans need food aid.The aid deal and arrival of US help come days after North Korea made a symbolic commitment to an international disarmament pact by blowing up the cooling tower at its plutonium-producing nuclear plant, and provided documents on its nuclear programmes.South Korea usually sends about 400 000 tonnes of rice and a hefty amount of fertiliser a year to North Korea but has not sent the aid this year as ties soured between the two when President Lee Myung-bak took office in February and promised a tough line toward Pyongyang.Nampa-Reuters