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Isolated North Korea forced to seek help to fight famine

January 27, 1996
Web posted at: 1:15 p.m. EST (1815 GMT)

(CNN) -- South Korea, Japan and the United States met in Hawaii this past week to address the famine in North Korea.

The crisis is forcing the isolated, hard-line Communist country to look beyond its borders for relief, posing a problem since most of the nations best able to help are enemies of North Korea.

house

Flooding last August destroyed about 40 percent of North Korea's farmland, leaving a reported half million people homeless.

North Korean officials say they have only half the grain needed to feed more than 20 million people until the next harvest. Already saddled with a gasping economy and stifling international isolation, North Korea may be a nation on the verge of catastrophe.

"Malnutrition has been developing for the last few months, every day that goes by, it becomes worse," said Trevor Page, of the U.N. World Food Program. (136K AIFF sound or 136K WAV sound)

The prospects of mass starvation have triggered international concern about North Korea's stability and prompted South Korea to put its military on heightened alert.

Last year, the South Korean government supplied North Korea with 150,000 tons of food and supplies. But it suspended negotiations for more aid after those shipments failed to improve relations.

army

Some South Koreans doubt North Korea is really in such dire straits. They say the North Korean military, the world's fifth-largest, has a huge stockpile of food reserved for its 1.2 million troops.

Regardless, the South Korean government is for now out of the charity business, leaving South Korean religious organizations to fill the void.

South Korea's third shipment of relief goods includes $125,000 dollars worth of instant noodles donated by the Korean Methodist church, 20,000 pairs of socks and 2,000 blankets.

The Korean Red Cross has been accepting cash donations since September. But this is the first time that large amounts of dry goods are being donated. Methodist leader Reverend Kim Sun-do donated 400,000 packs of instant noodles bought with cash raised by Christians across the country.

red cross

"The North Korea Red Cross made a formal request to the International Red Cross. We felt we needed to help out of our brotherhood and connection with North Korea, " said Lee Byung-woong of the Korean Red Cross

South Korean religious leaders have been meeting to discuss ways to help their northern neighbors. With the two governments glaring at each other, the religious groups hope they'll be able to continue channeling aid through the Red Cross.



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