N. Korea competes for aid with RI: UN

N. Korea competes for aid with RI: UN

BEIJING (Reuters): Food shipments to North Korea are being threatened as aid is diverted to Indonesia, hit hard by the Asian financial crisis, UN officials said yesterday.

"There are competing demands in the world, especially in this region now with Indonesia," said Douglas Coutts, the Pyongyang- based representative of the World Food Program.

"Many donors that would otherwise be contributing to our program, and are at present contributing, have to decide how much to send to North Korea, how much to send to Indonesia," he told a news conference. "That is new, we did not have that last year."

North Korea is struggling to feed its 24 million people after three years of floods, drought and other natural disasters.

Indonesia has been hit by falling wages and rising food prices that have sparked widespread riots and led to President Soeharto's fall last month.

Coutts was part of a UN mission, including WFP and Food and Agriculture Organization officials, that visited eight of North Korea's 12 provinces on June 2-12.

The officials said they did not see famine, although many people were dying from illnesses such as colds and pneumonia as the general health level declined.

"The general situation for the entire population was going down," Coutts said.

Abdur Rashid, an information officer at FAO, told the news conference: "We can confirm that the food crisis is not over".

Although this year's crops appeared healthy, Rashid said the food supply remained precarious. Stocks would be exhausted during July and August.

The next few months, when North Korea usually receives half of its rainfall, would be critical, Rashid said.

He said the public food distribution system covering 80 percent of the population had ceased to function in many areas of the country starting in March. The system also collapsed during March last year.

"This is the time when the consumption of herbs, wild plants, roots and berries increases," Rashid said.

Coutts said cases of gastro-intestinal diseases among the rural population had risen sharply this year because of the poor diet. Many people had fallen ill from drinking polluted reservoir water.

The North has been relying on international food aid, much of it channeled through the WFP.

Rashid said international donors this year had sent or pledged 800,000 tons of grain for North Korea, less than one half of the 1.95 million tons needed.