North Korea's Food Hunger Crisis
Facing the worst year of food production in recent times, the hunger disaster in North Korea appears only to be worsening. With over half a million people at risk from dying from severe malnutrition, the most vulnerable being children under five, pregnant women and the elderly.
In response to this humanitarian crisis, the European Commission is pledging a €10 million (£8,940,590) aid package, with the aim to lift 650,000 North Koreans out of their starvation. Food assistance will be precisely targeted at the vulnerable; to guarantee this, the North Korean government have agreed on a tough monitoring mechanism. This was after humanitarian experts gathered evidence of the deteriorating situation last month.
“If, at any stage we discover the aid is being diverted from its intended recipients, the commission will not hesitate to end its humanitarian intervention” said commissioner Georgiva.
However the EU commission found out that the amount of state distributed rations, on which two thirds of the population depend on, have been cut dramatically. To a mere 150g, only 400kcal, a fifth of the daily requirement.
As a result, many North Koreans have resorted to consuming grass in a desperate attempt to cure their famished stomachs. Because of this, the world food programme (WFP) will manage and oversee the deliveries of food aid packages in order to migrate the risk of food diversion.
They will also pay 400 visits per month to warehouses, child institutions, households, hospitals and food markets to ensure the aid reaches the intended people.On top of this, humanitarian experts sent by the European Commission will be granted unrestricted access for random checks.
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