YONHAP NEWS

(2nd LD) Thousands may die from famine spreading in N.K.: group

   By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL/WASHINGTON, May 9 (Yonhap) -- Famine has started to cause deaths in North Korea and hundreds of thousands of people may die by June, a local aid group said Friday amid warnings that the communist state faces its worst food shortage in years.

   People are already starving to death in such regions as Yangdok, South Pyongan Province and Sariwon, Hwanghae Province, the head of Buddhist aid group Good Friends, Ven. Pomnyun, told reporters in Washington.

   About 200,000 to 300,000 people might die of starvation in two months if there is no emergency aid from the international community, he warned.

   Earlier on Thursday, Good Friends said in its weekly newsletter that a daily average of one to two North Korean residents died of hunger in recent days. However, it did not provide the source of the information.

   It quoted an unnamed senior official of the North Korean Workers' Party as saying that the North's food situation is as bad as one in the late 1990s when millions of people are believed to have died of starvation. North Korea has since depended on foreign handouts to feed its 23 million people.

   Massive deaths from famine are only "a question of time," the official was quoted as saying.

   South Korea should know "a formidable storm of famine-related death" is slowly moving northward in the neighboring country, the group warned.

   The report followed a series of warnings about the North Korea food crisis from many international aid groups.

   The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization said in late March it expected North Korea to be short of about 1.66 million tons of grain this year, which would be the largest deficit in about seven years, due to soaring world grain prices and reduced international aid.

   Last week, the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics warned the North is facing the most "precarious situation" since the famine of the 1990s.

   Good Friends earlier said rations have been sharply reduced, even among ones for the elite citizens in Pyongyang, and warned massive deaths from starvation could begin to appear in provincial areas around May. According to senior officials of the U.N. World Food Program, the North Korean market prices of rice had more than doubled in the past year, with 1 kg costing about one-third of the monthly salary of an average North Korean worker.

   South Korea has annually sent about 400,000 tons of rice in aid to North Korea in recent years. But the North has yet to make a request for aid this year.

   Relations with South Korea, one of the North's major donors, chilled since the inauguration of conservative President Lee Myung-bak on Feb. 25. Lee's government has said it will link inter-Korean cooperation programs to progress on the North's nuclear disarmament, in stark contrast with the positions of the two previous administrations that provided billions of dollars of aid to the North with few strings attached under their "sunshine policy" of engaging Pyongyang.

   North Korea appears to be pinning hope on third countries, including China and the U.S., to get food aid.

   Media reports say Pyongyang already requested 150,000 tons of rice aid from China, of which 50,000 tons were already sent in the form of exports.

   Experts say the request for food aid may have been discussed when North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun visited Beijing late last month.

   Italy and India are reportedly set to provide 2,600 tons and 2,000 tons of food, respectively, to the North.

   Washington is reportedly preparing to send 500,000 tons of rice to North Korea this year if the North makes its long-awaited declaration of its nuclear programs.

   A team of U.S. officials visited North Korea this week to discuss how to guarantee U.S. food aid is distributed to the North Koreans in most need, according to the U.S. State Department.

   The team had "in-depth and good negotiations" on the humanitarian aid with North Korean officials during their May 5-8 visit, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday. It did not, however, provide details of the negotiations.

   Indicating South Korea may also be preparing to send food aid to North Korea, a ranking South Korean government official said Friday another government official will visit Washington next week to discuss food aid with U.S officials.

   However, he reaffirmed the government position that it will attach no condition to humanitarian aid to the North but such aid will be possible "only when there is a request" from the country.

   Analysts say there is little chance of such a request from the North which might view doing so as a loss of face.

   Good Friends called on the government to resume aid to prevent the imminent food crisis in North Korea even if no request is made.

   sshim@yna.co.kr
(END)