By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – The World Food Programme (WFP) announced Thursday that efforts to deliver aid to starving North Korea will stop by July if donations do not increase.
According to a senior UN official, WFP’s Pyongyang office is on the brink of closure as aid to North Korea has decreased due to growing donor fatigue.
He said, “WFP can continue to support around 1.4m children and pregnant women with fortified foods until the end of June. However, new contributions are required now or the operation will come to a standstill in July.”
In 2008, WFP saw a similar aid crunch where the programme had difficulty attracting donors, and UN officials opine that donors have once again become exasperated with North Korea.
For example, the U.S. was once a leading food donor, but the U.S. has announced that it will no longer supply cereals to the North until North Korea “resumes proper monitoring.”
Relationship between North Korea and the U.S. deteriorated last year when the North refused to issue visas to monitors who wanted to ensure that the food aid was going to the hungry citizens and not being funneled to the military and the government elite.
Although the exact condition of malnutrition in North Korea is hard to gauge, the country’s leader Kim Jong-il has made a very rare apology this year for “failing to deliver rice and meat stew to the people.”
A non-governmental relief agency also called on South Korea to resume food aid to North Korea so as to ease the North’s worst food shortage since the 1990’s.
Current conservative South Korea administration has stopped shipments of food to North Korea with resuming aid conditional on the North making progress in the Six-Party Talks.
Aid organizations have said that North Korea will need at least 1 million tons of food from donors to feed its 24 million citizens. Reports have also indicated that thousands have already starved to death this winter due to soaring food prices resulting from the recent currency reevaluation.
A graveyard in North Korea’s northeastern port city of Chongjin sees an average of two to three funerals a day now, compared to one funeral every three days before the country was hit with inflation caused by the currency reevaluation.
For more information, please see:
Bangkok Post – Lack of honors hits N.Korea food relief efforts – 4 March 2010
The Financial Times – Donor fatigue threatens to choke aid for North Korea – 4 March 2010
Yonhap News – NGO warns of extreme famine in N. Korea, urges aid – 5 March 2010
