Widespread deaths in famine-hit N. Korea: S. Korean groups
Pastor Dale Morgan
Widespread deaths in famine-hit N. Korea: S. Korean groups*
AFP
SEOUL -WIDESPREAD deaths from starvation are being reported in
famine-hit North
Korea, South Korean groups said on Monday.
The Peace Foundation, a private think-tank, issued a statement by its leader
Beomryun calling for urgent food aid.
'The number of people dying of hunger is visibly increasing in the rural
areas of Hwanghae provinces, with news about deaths by starvation heard
across North Korea,' said Beomryun, a Buddhist monk 'The feared tragedy of
massive deaths by famine has finally begun.' He failed in the statement to
give solid data or the source of his information.
Local aid group Good Friends, which operates in North Korea, listed 26
famine-hit cities or counties, including 17 in North and South Hwanghae
provinces, which are the main grain production region.
'An average of two to four people are dying of hunger every day in each
named North Korean county or city,' a Good Friends spokesman said.
The unification ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said it
could not immediately verify the claims by the groups, and intelligence
authorities were cautious.
'We have received no such report as the Peace Foundation or Good Friends
have claimed,' an intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.
'We don't think the North Korean food crisis this year will lead to such
massive deaths by starvation as in the 1990s.' Up to one million people died
in the 1990s famine. The communist state has since relied heavily on outside
aid to feed its 23 million population.
Some foreign analysts have warned of the risk of another full-scale famine
this year, citing devastating floods last summer which ruined harvests, and
rising food prices.
The United States said last month it would provide 500,000 tonnes of
emergency food aid over the next year.
The World Food Programme said in February that the North faces a shortfall
of 1.4 million tonnes of food this year, nearly a quarter of its total
needs. -- AFP