Military

DATE=06/27/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ASIA FOOD (L- ONLY)

NUMBER=2-304810

BYLINE=RON CORBEN

DATELINE=BANGKOK

CONTENT=

INTRO: The United Nations World Food Program is asking Asian countries to boost contributions to global food programs. Ron Corben reports that the W-F-P helps more than 100-million people worldwide, but one of the program's greatest challenges is working in North Korea.

TEXT: The U-N World Food Program's executive director James Morris says South East Asia has the economic potential to produce the largest number of what he termed "emerging donors" to the U-N food agency.

Vietnam recently graduated from the W-F-P assistance program, while India made its first contribution of 40-thousand tons of wheat to Afghanistan. Thailand and China are already donors in the W-F-P.

But Mr. Morris says this year the program will help some 109-million people globally, but North Korea is the most difficult place for the U-N assistance program.

/// MORRIS ACT ///

We're feeding six-point-four million people in North Korea -- four-million women and children. (But) the politics of North Korea are very challenging. It's one of the most difficult places in the world for us to work.

/// END ACT ///

North Korea faced a severe crisis in the mid-1990s as the country's food output plunged after both floods and drought, with the world witnessing images of starving infants and reports of extreme poverty.

Mr. Morris says international support has succeeded in lowering -- from 60 percent to 20 percent -- the percentage of underweight children who are under the age of seven years old -- improving the health of thousands of children who would have otherwise faced malnutrition.

Richard Corsino is the W-F-P's Pyongyang-based country director. He says there have been gains in recent years in overall food production, but shortages remain.

/// CORSINO ACT ///

By and large the situation is somewhat better this year than it has been, certainly during the flood and drought years of the mid-1990s. But there remains a very serious shortfall overall in the country.

/// END ACT ///

North Korea annually falls short in grain supply by about one-million tons.

Mr. Corsino says North Korea faces a constant struggle to produce sufficient food. Only 18-percent of the land is suitable for cultivation , and he says population growth and economic decline are making the shortages worse. (Signed)

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