THAILAND/NORTH KOREA: WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME RICE SHIPMENT BOUND FOR NORTH KOREA, LEAVES THAILAND

Record ID: 402573

  • Title: THAILAND/NORTH KOREA: WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME RICE SHIPMENT BOUND FOR NORTH KOREA, LEAVES THAILAND
  • Date: 1st February 1996
  • Summary: SAMUTPRAKARN PROVINCE, THAILAND/ SINUIJU, SANGDAM AND RINSANG, NORTH KOREA (APRIL 2, 1996/RECENT) SAMUTPRAKARN PROVINCE, THAILAND (APRIL 2, 1996) 1. GV GREAT BEST 1 SHIP DOCKED AT WHARF 0.04 2. CUS WPF (WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME) SACKS BEING FILLED WITH RICE (3 SHOTS) 0.22 3. MVS WPF SACKS OF RICE ON CONVEYOR BELTS (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 16th February 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SAMUTPRAKARN PROVINCE, THAILAND/ SINUIJU, SANGDAM AND RINSANG, NORTH KOREA
  • City:
  • Country: ASIA Thailand North Korea
  • Reuters ID: LVABW4YVX5XII02D77PHL6EOQUE6
  • Story Text: A rice shipment bound for North Korea left Thailand on Wednesday (April 3) with 9,200 tonnes of food aid provided by the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP).

    The shipment replaces another relief shipment lost in the middle of March when the Chinese freighter MV Chengda sank in the Taiwan Strait along with 5,635 tonnes of rice. At least 15 crew members were killed.

    The new shipment will be the third that the WFP has sent to North Korea of relief packages donated by the United States, Switzerland and Australia.

    Hwang Byong Mo, the North Korean captain of the Panamanian registered MV Great Best 1, said 6,000 tonnes was loaded at the rice wharf in Samutprakarn province and that the ship would pick up the remaining 3,200 tonnes at Sichang Island over the weekend. He said the trip to North Korea would take one week.

    The food aid shipments follow North Korea's unexpected reversal late last year of a long-standing policy not to seek foreign aid.

    Pyongyang appealed to the international community for help in the wake of devastating floods which ravaged much of North Korea in August 1995 and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and destitute.

    According to the WFP, the floods affected some half a million people, including 55,000 children.

    The U.N. food aid organisation said the initial shipment of 6,540 tonnes in November was the first U.N. food aid ever sent to North Korea.


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