North Korea

Pyongyang opens door to more food aid

Article published on the 2008-06-30 Latest update 2008-06-30 10:46 TU

A flooded cornfield in North Korea.
(Photo: WFP)

The World Food Programme (WFP) will expand its operations in North Korea, after signing a deal with the reclusive regime to provide food for 5 million people. It’s another sign that the country is opening up to the rest of the world after it agreed to stop its nuclear program and destroyed a nuclear reactor last week.

The WFP announced the deal Monday, saying that the first ship carrying 37,000 tons of wheat has already arrived in North Korea. 1.2 million North Koreans currently receive food aid, but rising food prices and a poor 2007 harvest pushed aid groups to warn of an impending famine.

Domestic rice, wheat, maize and potato prices have risen two to three times in the last year, the WFP reports, and a flood last summer drastically reduced the domestic crop.

“We will be able to bring in nearly 60 additional international staff to expand our operations and possibly to feed up to 5 million people across the country,” Paul Risley, WFP spokesperson for Asia, told RFI.

North Korea has received limited food aid from South Korea in the past several years, mostly in the form of loans, but refuses to accept humanitarian aid from its neighbour amid growing cross-border tensions.

The agreement with the WFP, however, could open the door to indirect aid.

“We believe that the North Korean government would welcome any and all donor contributions through the World Food Programme, certainly including contributions from South Korea,” Risley said

The WFP started operations in North Korea in the mid-1990s when a famine there killed an estimated one million people. In 2006, Pyongyang ordered the UN emergency aid organisation to cut back its operations.