North Koreans 'will go hungry due to cut in food aid'
Millions of needy North Koreans will face “real hardship” this winter because of cuts in aid, the World Food Programme warned today.
The UN Security Council voted on Saturday to impose sanctions on North Korea in response to its claim that it has conducted a nuclear test.
Although the sanctions do not affect humanitarian aid, the United States announced it was halting aid given through the UN agency’s food aid programme.
Donations from South Korea were stopped earlier and aid from China is down to a third of what it was last year, said Mike Huggins, a WFP spokesman who has just returned from a five-day visit to North Korea.
He said: “It’s a time of year when fruit and vegetables are not available to the poorest people and they become more reliant on food aid. If that food aid is not there, then there is going to be very real hardship.”
Huggins said children, mothers, the elderly and the infirm were at the greatest risk.
Some 37% of North Korea’s children are malnourished and one third of mothers are malnourished and anaemic, he said.
