Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=6/20/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-291187

TITLE=WFP NORTH KOREA FOOD (L ONLY)

BYLINE=LETA HONG FINCHER

DATELINE=BEIJING

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A United Nations expert says a shortfall in donations is forcing hungry North Koreans to scrounge for seaweed and grasses to eat. The U-N warns that the country could fall back into famine if no new aid is received. V-O-A's Beijing Correspondent Leta Hong Fincher has more.

TEXT: In May, the U-N's World Food Program suspended cereal distribution to almost 700-thousand secondary school children, as well as half a million elderly people, caregivers and teachers. It also cut back on food distribution projects to 500-thousand North Korean workers.

Gerald Bourke, a W-F-P spokesman in Beijing, just visited North Korea. He told reporters Thursday that people cut off from aid are scrambling to stave off hunger.

///BOURKE ACT///

They're going up into the mountains in search of edible grasses. They're on the beaches collecting seaweed. Teachers say attendance at school is down because children are out collecting wild foods. Teachers themselves and so-called caregivers at kindergartens, nurseries and the like are having to take time off from work for the same reason.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Bourke says a new contribution from the United States of 100-thousand metric tons of wheat, rice and dairy products will help relieve North Korea's food crisis. But he says the W-F-P still needs new donations before August to ensure that distribution can resume for those cut off from aid.

/// BOURKE ACT ///

We still need quite a bit more by way of contributions if we're to be able to assist all the people we've targeted until the end of the year.

/// END ACT ///

The W-F-P feeds six-point-four million North Koreans considered most vulnerable. They include children in orphanages and kindergartens, the elderly, and pregnant and nursing women.

/// OPT ///

Six countries have contributed to the W-F-P's North Korea program this year: the United States, South Korea, Germany, Australia, Cuba and Finland. Japan, however, has yet to pledge food aid this year. Mr. Bourke says Japan was North Korea's largest donor last year, contributing more than half of all W-F-P food to the communist state.

Tokyo is delaying new pledges to review its ties with Pyongyang. Tokyo accuses Pyongyang of kidnapping Japanese citizens. Japan is also salvaging a suspected North Korean ship, sunk after a shootout with the Japanese coast guard last year.

/// END OPT ///

Aid agencies say hundreds of thousands of North Koreans have died of disease and malnutrition since the mid-1990s. According to Pyongyang, almost half of North Korean children under five are chronically malnourished. A further four million school children are severely underfed, and the maternal death rate is rising. (Signed)

NEB/HK/LHF/KPD/MEM