Pyongyang-based program directors ofmajor U.N. relief agencies painted a mixed picture of North Korea'songoing food shortage but maintained the situation remains veryserious.
World Food Program country director in the North Koreancapital, Jean-Pierre de Margerie, says rising world prices for rice andbasic grains, compounded with flooding last year, put many at risk inNorth Korea - or, as it is known, the DPRK.
"Most of the regionsin the DPRK have been sliding downwards towards acute food andlivelihood crisis," he said. "And some areas - those most affected bythe crisis - are sliding to level four, which is a level ofhumanitarian emergency."
About a million North Koreans arebelieved to have died from hunger-related causes in the mid 1990sduring a famine brought about by North Korea's self-imposed isolationand economic mismanagement. Periodic flooding takes a much worse tollon farmland in the North than in South Korea, because rainwater flowsfaster down mountains stripped bare by impoverished North Koreans.
DeMargerie says unusually heavy floods last year, and the severeshortages that followed, appear to have made North Korea morecooperative with the United Nations.
He says the WFP hasexpanded its North Korea operations fivefold. North Korea has allowed59 WFP staff members into the country this year, including, for thefirst time, native Korean speakers. He says the organization has amuch easier time monitoring food distribution than in previous years.
"Weare reaching conditions, which allow us to say that we have randomaccess in the field, allowing us to increase tremendously our level ofconfidence in terms of confirming that the food is reaching theintended beneficiary," said de Margerie.
De Margerie says unlikeprevious years, food shortages are affecting what he calls the North's"cereal belt", farming areas in the country's Southeast.
U.N.Food and Agriculture Organization North Korea program coordinator JohnO'Dae says North Korean agriculture is not working near capacitybecause its equipment and infrastructure are too dilapidated.
"Alot of equipment - tractors, trailers - is quite old," he said. "It isin a state of poor repair. There is a lack of spare parts and tires."
Morecrucially, O'Dae says North Korea lacks the fuel to run its equipment,and chemical fertilizer to use in its fields. The shortages are addingto worries the North will have a poor harvest this Fall.
SouthKorea has not provided any direct food or fertilizer aid to the Norththis year due to a chill in inter-Korean relations. The U.N. aiddirectors are scheduled to meet with South Korean officials thisweek.