Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=03/19/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-314268

TITLE=NORKOR/UNICEF (LONG)

BYLINE=AMY BICKERS

DATELINE=TOKYO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The U-N children's agency, UNICEF, says it has had some success in improving the lives of North Korea's young, but warns that great challenges remain. As V-O-A's Amy Bickers reports from Tokyo, the agency's chief estimates that malnutrition threatens about 70-thousand children.

TEXT: Carol Bellamy, the executive director of UNICEF, has completed a three-day visit to North Korea, her first trip to the communist nation since 1997.

She says she saw signs in the impoverished nation that the quality of life for children has improved, but she warns that death from preventable illnesses such as malnutrition remains a real threat.

/// BELLAMY ACT ///

We estimate there are still close to 70-thousand severely malnourished children. And the problems of children's heath. are still very severe.

/// END ACT ///

Ms. Bellamy noted that she saw significant improvements in UNICEF's vaccination program in North Korea, noting that 80-percent of North Korean children are now immunized against basic diseases such as polio, compared to just 35-percent in 1987.

Ms. Bellamy says UNICEF is moving beyond the provision of food and medicine to focus more on education by making basic improvements to schools, such as supplying clean water.

/// 2nd BELLAMY ACT ///

. We have also done some modest rehabilitation, particularly for schools in the winter. to try and make the classrooms warmer because many of the schools do not have heat.

/// END ACT ///

Ms. Bellamy's trip to North Korea comes amid a standoff over the Stalinist state's nuclear-weapons program, which has dragged on for 18 months. Two rounds of international talks have taken place in Beijing in the past eight months, but so far the deadlock persists. A third round of talks is expected to take place by July.

Ms. Bellamy says that despite nuclear tensions, she hopes donor nations will remember North Korea's people.

/// 3rd BELLAMY ACT ///

While the discussions need to take place on the political level. I would hope there would be support at the same time for. helping them gain access to clean water, making sure vaccines get to kids and making sure food gets to pregnant women and small children. These. issues. need to transcend the politics.

/// END ACT ///

North Korea has depended on other nations and international groups to feed its 22-million people since the mid-1990s, because of natural disasters and economic mismanagement. Foreign donors have provided upwards of eight-million tons of food since then, but up to 200-thousand people have died because of hunger and related illnesses. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/AB/MH/RAE