EU to provide emergency food aid to DPRK
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Xinhua, July 4, 2011
The European Commission announced on Monday it would provide emergency food aid to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), amid growing fears of a worsening hunger crisis in the country.
According to an EC statement, the objective of the 10-million-euro (about 14.5 million U.S. dollars) aid package is to lift around 650,000 people, mainly in the northern and eastern parts of the country, out of hunger.
The country is faced up with a deteriorating food production in recent years. The next main cereal harvest is due in October.
Food assistance will reach children under five who have already been hospitalized with acute malnutrition, said the statement.
Children in residential care, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women, hospital patients and the elderly will also be fed by the program, it said.
"The purpose of this aid package is to save the lives of at least 650,000 people who could otherwise die from lack of food," it added.
"Our experts saw severely malnourished children in hospitals and nurseries where no treatment was available," said Kristalina Georgieva, European Union Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.
The European Commission sent a humanitarian assessment team to the DPRK in June, and the team visited hospitals and clinics, kindergartens and nurseries, markets and cooperative farms and state food distribution centers to gather evidence of food situation in the Asian country.
The experts confirmed that the nutrition situation is worse than in previous years, and that emergency assistance is needed.
"The nutrition problem is turning into an acute crisis in some parts of the country," Georgieva said.
The official also requested a monitoring operation be set up to ensure the aid going to the neediest recipients, stressing that the EC would suspend the assistance if it was proved that the aid be diverted from its intended recipients.
The statement also noted that the program will be overseen by the World Food Program (WFP).
Humanitarian aid experts from the European Commission and WFP monitors have been promised unrestricted access for random checks to verify that aid reaches those in need, according to the EC.
