Foreign food aid donors stop funding North Korea
Updated
Since North Korea's nuclear test in May, the World Food Programme says it has not received any new donations from the international community and will struggle to feed millions of ordinary North Koreans.
A previous appeal for more than $US500 million in food aid received only 15 per cent of the target, meaning a planned relief operation to reach 6.2 million people has been scaled back to target 2 million.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speakers: Lena Savelli, World Food Programme's spokeswoman on North Korea
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SAVELLI: Well it's hard to say what's driving the donors. World Food Programme has, as you said appealed for an emergency operation in the DPRK, which would see as many as six-point-two million people. We have received many generous contributions over the years for our operations but the size of the operation and the size of the food problem in the DPRK is siimply so great that we haven't been able to adequately fill it. We still hope that more donors will come forward, this is a big humanitarian issue, and more than eight-point-seven million North Koreans will be needing food assistance this year.
LAM: Lena, I understand that food aid monitors were expelled back in March. Has that had any impact on the amount of food getting to North Korea?
SAVELLI: Well, World Food Programme food aid monitors were not expelled in March so our programme has continued and it is still operating in the DPRK. So food assistance is still getting to many people through the World Food Programme's operations.
LAM: The United States for instance. It says it wants to help the people of North Korea but it also wants assurances that the food will get to those who need it. Is that a reasonable condition to place on food aid?
SAVELLI: Well World Food Programme, as an organisation also places high demands on monitoring of our food assistance and we try to assure the donors that the conditions we have, are adequate to run a confident programme where food actually gets to the hungry people. We operate under a strict policy of no access, no food, meaning that we will only distribute food assistance to areas, to charity institutions where our international monitors can go and verify that all the food is there and it's accounted for.
LAM: Well we've had reports in the past of food getting to only the elite or being sold to third countries. Where the WFP's concerned you're quite satisfied that this is not happening?
SAVELLI: We are quite confident that the World Food Programme assistance does not end up in this situation. In addition to our monitoring system, we also try to distribute food assistance which is really only suitable for small children and people really in need of nutritional food. We give locally produced porridge to children, which is not an attractive food for an adult Korean, if they have a choice. So in this way, it's also a good way of assuring that food actually gets to these hungry people that we're trying to feed.
LAM: And presumably, the porridge that you speak of is value-added, it's highly nutritious is it?
SAVELLI: Yes the World Food Programme supports several factories in the DPRK that produces this food, with vitamins and minerals added and it has a good impact on the nutritional situation of children, because non-nutrition levels in the DPRK are very high and it's important that we combat that so that children can grow up and be healthy and educate themselves.
LAM: And Lena, with the current funding the way it is, what is the World Food Programme able to do and what can't it do, what are some of the limitations?
SAVELLI: Well our operation is heavily under-funded, very unfortunately so. The six-point-two milion North Koreans we have been planning to feed, we have not been able to reach. We are presently feeding around one-point-five million people in the country, mainly small children in child institutions, hospitals and pregnant and lactating women. We will be focussing our programme now in 57 counties of the country, compared to the 131 counties which we had originally planned to provide food assistance to. So obviously, our impact will be less than intended, an unfortunate incident but we still will carry on a programme and hope to reach as many North Koreans in need of food assistance as possible.
LAM: And just very quickly, what is it about North Korea that the people can't seem to grow enough food to feed themselves? Is that because partly there's no political will there to put money into agriculture?
SAVELLI: Well the agriculture system in DPRK is constrained by many factors; the geographical location, the fact that only about 18 percent of the country is arable, they are very much at risk of flooding and rain. It's hard for them to grow enough food to feed themselves.
