NORTH KOREA

The North
Korean food crisis has gone
from bad to worse. Once
again, aid workers have
issued a 'special alert', following reports of diminishing food supply. Food allotments for most of the citizens
have been cut to about 226.7
gm per person per day and
some hungry residents are
forced to eat roots. Aid
workers believe the situation
will only deteriorate further
because of the lean period
which extends from May to
October, when the next harvest season starts. "There are
some cases of malnutrition,
but it is not widespread at
this time, as far as we can
tell," said Trevor Page,
director for the World Food
Programme, in the capital
Pyongyang. Foreign assistance which helped North
Koreans tide over the crisis
in the winter, has come
down from 50,000 tonnes (t)
of grain a month to 12,200 t
last month. But for the time
being, the us, Japan and
South Korea have refused to
provide any additional aid.