South gives grain to relieve North Korea

10 March 1998

South gives grain to relieve North Korea

STARVING North Korea will receive 50,000 tonnes of corn and powdered milk worth $10 million by early May from neighbouring South Korea.

It will be provided through the United Nations agency the World Food Programme which has itself asked for $378 million from international donors to feed one-third of the norths 23 million population.

North Korea recently warned its grain supplies would be exhausted by next week because of three years of floods and drought, leading to the collapse of its inefficient agricultural system. The grain shortage is estimated at 1.3 million tonnes.

• Financial Times 10/03/98 page 5