North Korea still hovers in a crisis of malnutrition “with no end in sight”, and its already poor hospitals are getting worse, say United Nations officials. Three successive years of good weather have improved the domestic food supply, but the country could still slip back into famine within six months if international relief was halted, said Rick Corsino, the World Food Program chief in the capital, Pyongyang. “If we continue to work there another famine can be averted,” he said.
The country produces about 4 million tonnes of the 5 million tonnes of cereals it needs, with the shortfall made up by UN shipments or aid from China and South Korea. About 90 per cent of North Korea’s 23 million people live for half the year on just their daily ration of 300 grams of rice or the corn equivalent, plus some pickled vegetables, and get meat, fish or eggs only on national holidays. UN agencies working in North Korea yesterday launched an appeal for $US221 million ($A306 million) for next year, most of which will go to the World Food Program to help feed 6.5 million people, concentrating on children, pregnant women and the elderly.
Point Source
PracticalSustenance.Net