UN agencies warn of impending N.Korea food crisis

GENEVA, Dec 22 (Reuters) United Nations aid agencies warned today of an impending food crisis in North Korea where summer flooding destroyed crops and worsened a chronic shortage of grain.

''The situation is indeed critical,'' Simon Pluess, spokesman of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), told a news briefing.

''About a third of the population never eats enough and half of the population goes for periods in the year when they have an insufficient food intake.'' North Korea has still not recovered from famine in the 1990s that experts say killed about 2.5 million people, or 10 per cent of the population. Major storms in July damaged grain-producing areas and triggered a new round of scarcities.

The reclusive country is estimated to have at least a 1 million tonne cereal deficit in 2007. Pluess said bilateral food imports and multilateral food aid will cover only half of it.

Foreign assistance for Pyongyang has fallen sharply after the Stalinist government restricted aid agencies' access, the agencies said.

The WFP is feeding only 700,000 of the 1.9 million North Koreans it has identified as needing food aid. This was because it received just 15 per cent of the 102 million dollar it sought for the country this year, Pluess said.

''The situation is likely to translate into increased malnutrition rates,'' Pluess said. Analysts believe North Korea cannot produce enough food for itself even in the best crop years, and much of the food is diverted to the military.

SEVERE FLOODING Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), said severe flooding in four provinces had ''decimated'' North Korean food production.

He noted children especially have been ''victims of ongoing political turmoil which has seen a reduction in international assistance''.

North Korea triggered widespread international condemnation and UN-backed sanctions after it carried out its first nuclear test in October.

''What is clear is that the nutritional status of children is falling, they are very vulnerable as it is.

''We are reminding donors today to look beyond politics and renew their support of humanitarian programmes in the country,'' Bociurkiw said.

''If you take the whole picture that the food production is down by 20 per cent, multilateral sources have brought in less than a tenth of what they did the previous year and bilateral assistance is only a quarter, it then becomes clear that we might be heading into a major food crisis in the spring of 2007,'' Bociurkiw said.

UNICEF has received less than half of the 11.2 million dollar it sought this year for North Korea where it is working in education, water and sanitation, and health.

''So additional funding is immediately required to ensure basic services for women and children in 2007,'' he said.

REUTERS SP KN1936