DATE=11/30/2000

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=NORTH KOREA FAMINE L ONLY

NUMBER=2-269845

BYLINE=ALISHA RYU

DATELINE=HONG KONG

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The political climate in North Korea may be improving with recent thawing in relations with South Korea and the United States. But the United Nations and international aid agencies say the poverty-stricken communist country is facing critical food shortages again this year because of crop devastation brought on by drought and two major typhoons. More from VOA's Alisha Ryu from our Asia News Center.

TEXT: The United Nations estimates that North Korea will need nearly two million tons of additional food in the coming year. On Wednesday, U-N officials launched its largest appeal for North Korean food aid to avert a famine that it says could affect up to two- thirds of the country's 22 million people.

The director of Caritas aid organization in Hong Kong, Cathy Zellweger, recently visited North Korea and agrees the situation has become dire.

/// FIRST ZELLWEGER ACT ///

I was there from the 7th to the 14th of November.

It was right after the harvest. But the harvest is not good. They had no rain for two months and then the typhoon disaster in late August. People continue to live on the edge. Many really depend on food aid and without international assistance, the result would be massive hunger.

/// END ACT ///

If there is a famine, it would be the fourth time in five years that North Korea has been ravaged by food shortages. Between 1995 and 1998, two million North Koreans are believed to have died - most likely from famine-related illnesses like pneumonia, tuberculosis and diarrhea - as well as hunger. Many who survived say they did so by eating tree bark and weeds.

Previous food shortages were precipitated by two years of flooding followed by a drought that pushed the nation's collective farming system to the brink of collapse. Ms. Zellweger says the three years of famine have left North Korea largely dependent on international aid and she fears asking for more this time will generate only a lukewarm response from donors.

/// SECOND ZELLWEGER ACT ///

It will be more and more difficult to raise money for North Korea because we have been appealing for six, seven years and there is a certain amount of donor fatigue.

/// END ACT ///

Even South Korea may be limited by how much it can help its northern neighbor. Since the landmark inter-Korean summit between the leaders of North and South Korea in June, South Korea has donated millions of dollars in grain and fertilizer to North Korea.

But South Korean President Kim Dae-jung has come under severe criticism at home for doling out money and favors to Pyongyang without receiving substantive agreements from North Korea in return. (Signed)

NEB/HK/AR/JO