Matthew Pennington
Associated Press
via Star Tribune [MN]
3/24/2011
WASHINGTON – The United Nations reported Thursday that more than 6 million North Koreans, about a quarter of the communist state’s population — are in urgent need of international food aid.
The findings, the result of a needs assessment conducted in February and March, will add to pressure for the United States to resume food aid to North Korea suspended in 2009 after its monitors were expelled. But doing so could be seen as aiding a government that has since advanced its nuclear weapons programs and is accused of twice attacking U.S. ally South Korea.
In its report, the result of an assessment conducted in February and March, the U.N. said that North Korea has suffered a series of shocks including summer floods and then a harsh winter, “leaving the country highly vulnerable to a food crisis.”
It said the worst affected include children, women and the elderly, and recommended providing 430,000 metric tons (475,000 tons) of food aid.
The article continues at the Star Tribune.
