CHINA: UNITED NATIONS APPEALS FOR URGENT SUPPORT IN NORTH KOREA SAYING THE COUNTRY IS STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Record ID:
338368
CHINA: UNITED NATIONS APPEALS FOR URGENT SUPPORT IN NORTH KOREA SAYING THE COUNTRY IS STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
- Title: CHINA: UNITED NATIONS APPEALS FOR URGENT SUPPORT IN NORTH KOREA SAYING THE COUNTRY IS STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
- Date: 20th November 2003
- Summary: (W3) BEIJING, CHINA (NOVEMBER 20, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV OF AID OFFICIALS SITTING DOWN FOR PRESS CONFERENCE (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. MCU (English) RICK CORSINO, ACTING UNITED NATIONS HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR, DIRECTOR OF WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME IN PYONGYANG, SAYING "The country still faces a massive food shortage, and this is nearly one million metric tons of grain, of cereals, for the 2003 and 2004 marketing year which equates to about 20 percent of the needs of the country. The industry and mining sectors are still largely working at the most minimal levels of production. There are still alarming rates of malnutrition despite the very significant gains that have been managed over the last four or five years." 0.45 3. SLV/SV VARIOUS OF JOURNALISTS (2 SHOTS) 0.56 4. MCU (English) CORSINO SAYING "(An) average family has nothing more than some maize, maize or rice, and pickled cabbage or radishes to live on for about six months of every year this is during the late autumn, winter months, totally lacking in protein, lacking in micro-nutrients, lacking in fat. The average person might be able to hope for some meat, some fish and egg only on a national holiday. This is the way people in that country live year after year." 1.36 5. SV AID OFFICIALS SITTING 1.41 6. SV CAMERAMAN FILMING 1.47 7. MCU (English) EIGIL SORENSEN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION, SAYING "In the health services outside the capital the situation remains critical and most essential services are not available to large parts of the population. The SARS outbreak in China and the region actually highlighted the extreme vulnerability of the weak health services in the DPRK. Most hospitals do not have running water or regular electricity." 2.14 8. LV PRESS CONFERENCE 2.20 9. MCU (English) PIERETTE VU THI, REPRESENTATIVE UNITED NATIONS' CHILDREN FUND IN PYONGYANG, SAYING "What we're investing in is the future of Korean children and that children are not responsible for any political situation, and that unfortunately they bear the price of this." 2.38 10. SLV AID OFFICIALS SEATED FOR PRESSER 2.44 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 5th December 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BEIJING, CHINA
- Country: China
- Reuters ID: LVA7W1CPXP1D0K3P34RJXNYRP1AS
- Story Text: United Nations appeals for urgent support in North
Korea saying the country is still in the middle of a
humanitarian crisis
United Nations agencies and NGOs on Thursday
(November 20) appealed for $221 million in aid for North
Korea in 2004.
They said North Korea, slowly recovering from the
famine of the late 1980s, was still in the middle of a
humanitarian emergency with no relief in sight.
"The country still faces a massive food shortage, and
this is nearly one million metric tons of grain, of
cereals, for the 2003 and 2004 marketing year which equates
to about 20 percent of the needs of the country. The
industry and mining sectors are still largely working at
the most minimal levels of production. There are still
alarming rates of malnutrition despite the very significant
gains that have been managed over the last four or five
years," said Rick Corsino, the U.N. Humanitarian
Coordinator who is also the World Food Programme's director
in Pyongyang.
He said while crop production was growing, more people
were being fed and far fewer children suffered chronic
malnutrition than five years ago, these recent gains could
be at risk due to lack of donor support.
Corsino said aid donations to North Korea had not met
demand this year or last. WFP was given about two-thirds of
the aid it asked for, and UNICEF's projects this year were
50 percent underfunded.
He declined to link the crisis over North Korea's
nuclear weapons programme, which began in October 2002, to
the aid shortfall, but said donations from the United
States and Japan had fallen.
The bulk of what the U.N. was asking for this year --
$190 million -- was for food aid designed to help 6.5
million people.
"(An) average family has nothing more than some maize,
maize or rice, and pickled cabbage or radishes to live on
for about six months of every year -- this is during the
late autumn, winter months --, totally lacking in protein,
lacking in micro-nutrients, lacking in fat. The average
person might be able to hope for some meat, some fish and
egg only on a national holiday. This is the way people in
that country live year after year," Corsino said.
Cri
tics say food aid helps support North Korea's 1.14
million member military even if the food is not diverted to
army barracks because the government has said it reserves
the first cut of harvests for the armed forces.
Besides an acute lack of food, the country's health,
water and sanitation programmes are substantially
underfunded.
"In the health services outside the capital the
situation remains critical and most essential services are
not available to large parts of the population. The SARS
outbreak in China and the region actually highlighted the
extreme vulnerability of the weak health services in the
DPRK. Most hospitals do not have running water or regular
electricity," said Eigil Sorenson for the World Health
Organisation.
70,000 children in the country of 23 million are still
malnourished and risked death without medical care.
"What we're investing in is the future of Korean
children and that children are not responsible for any
political situation, and that unfortunately they bear the
price of this," said Pierette Vu Thi, UNICEF's
representative in North Korea.
The U.N. said another reason to maintain aid to North
Korea was to support tentative and gradual economic reforms
introduced last year. Signs of economic activity had risen
markedly.
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