N Korea Food Crisis Deepens

[Farmer]

Heavy rains hit North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Heavy rains that battered North Korea in recent weeks have heavily damaged crops, state media said Monday, dealing a further blow to the impoverished country as it struggles to avert a food crisis.

Strong downpours pounded many parts of North Korea between Friday and Sunday, including Kangwon province, which received 12.7 inches of rain, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. The harsh weather came a week after similar rains lashed the country, it said.

The weather "inflicted heavy losses to various sectors of the national economy including agriculture and to the people's living," KCNA reported, without elaborating.

The heavy rains came as North Korea faces its worst food crisis since the late 1990s, when an estimated 2 million people died of hunger. The North has since relied on foreign aid to feed its 23 million people.

The World Food Program, the U.N. food agency, warned last week that millions of North Koreans were at risk of slipping toward precarious hunger levels and that the food shortage also threatened to cause widespread malnutrition.

North Korea's food situation was worsened by devastating floods last year.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gs9i6oLG-1tH7qh8k9pBfVQ5WANAD92BEBPO2

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: N Korea Food Crisis Deepens

Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham) just spoke a church here Sunday, after his trip to North Korea. Not only did he speak at NK churches, but he spoke with political leaders.

The government officials really admired his father, and perhaps this communication channel will bring help to the North Korean people.

He said he believes his was the first private jet ever allowed into North Korea by both their government and the US government.

.

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: N Korea Food Crisis Deepens

Per samaritan's purse website (http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/articles/bringing_good_news_to_north_korea/):

(snipped)

Graham?s sermon culminated meetings with high-ranking North Korean officials and visits to medical development projects that have been sponsored by Samaritan?s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Samaritan?s Purse is also involved in a new program to help feed hundreds of thousands of North Koreans in the wake of a food shortage resulting from last year?s floods.

During his meetings with North Korean officials, Rev. Graham discussed ways that Samaritan?s Purse can help the people of North Korea and strengthen relationships. Through the feeding program, Samaritan?s Purse has been allowed to open an office in North Korea.

Since the 1990s, Samaritan?s Purse has been sending medical teams into North Korea to work on a restricted base. The work accelerated last year, after North Korea was deluged with torrential rains and devastating floods that left thousands homeless and destroyed much of the nation?s farmland. We chartered a 747 cargo jet to deliver $8.3 million in medicine and other emergency supplies. It was the first private flight directly from the United States since the Korean War.

During Rev. Graham?s visit, North Korean government leaders personally expressed their deep gratitude to Samaritan?s Purse for last year?s flood relief efforts.

The extensive flooding caused great damage to the nation's farms, leading to the country's current food shortage. Samaritan?s Purse is one of five non-governmental organizations that have been invited by the United States Agency for International Development to distribute food in North Korea. The first shipment of grain arrived a few weeks ago.