Shortfall in donations to 2003 UN appeal for North Korea threatens 3.8 million lives

Unless this year's Consolidated Appeal for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) receives new pledges by May, countrywide cereal shortages will affect 3.8 million people, especially the 70,000 children who are already at risk of dying from severe malnutrition, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today.

Quoting a food aid assessment by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), OCHA said the appeal for $225 million is only half funded and, at times this year, up to 3 million people in need of food assistance in the DPRK had to be dropped from WFP distributions.

According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), 42 per cent of the DPRK's young children are chronically malnourished and 70,000 at high risk of dying if they do not receive critical hospital treatment, OCHA said.

In the northeast DPRK, water is available for only three to four hours a day because electricity is only provided for that period of time, while fuel for heating and cooling is also in short supply, it added.

Due to an industrial decline, people in the provinces of Ryanggang and North and South Hamgyong have been forced into heavy dependence on limited land, resulting in massive deforestation, it said.

The target for next year's Consolidated Appeal for the DPRK will be $221 million, it said.