RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: North Koreans going hungry Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:54 am | |
| HUNGRY North Koreans, and especially children, face a 'critical' food situation as donations have dried up amid the country's nuclear standoff with the world, the UN's food aid agency said on Wednesday.
Torben Due, the World Food Programme's representative in North Korea, said the agency also had been told by the government there to scale back its operations, without being given a specific reason.
He said the agency, which launched an emergency operation late last year amid a deteriorating food outlook, has had to pare back its original goal of reaching 6.2 million of the hungry to just 2.27 million.
'For adults it doesn't mean a lot if you live for a few months on a diet of cereals and vegetables but for children it is critical,' he said.
'We see an increase in the number of children being admitted to hospitals with severe malnutrition,' he added, while stressing that observation was based on anecdotal evidence and could not yet be quantified or verified. |
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