-Caveat Lector- UN Appeals for $260M to feed N. Korea By NICOLE WINFIELD .c The Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The World Food Program appealed for $260 million to feed 8 million North Koreans over the next year, the largest number the agency has sought to help since it started fighting famine in the communist nation four years ago. The appeal will target 1.1 million children between age 12 and 17 and a quarter of North Korea's elderly -- groups that the U.N. agency's executive director Catherine Bertini said Friday were especially vulnerable. It will also include infants and younger children, orphans, hospital patients, pregnant women and nursing mothers, and more than 1.6 million people in WFP work projects who are paid with food. ``Large amounts of food aid and humanitarian assistance have been delivered but the low level of commercial food imports and limited agricultural output are jeopardizing the nutritional stability of the whole population -- especially women, children and the elderly,'' Bertini told a news conference. An estimated 2 million elderly are being targeted by the new appeal because they are the ``silent sufferers'' in North Korea's food emergency, often without families to provide for them, she said. WFP has often focused on feeding young children and infants, but has begun targeting its efforts toward older students who also are showing the effects of long-term famine, she told a news conference. High-protein biscuits will now be given to secondary-school-age children while they are in class -- to make sure they don't bring the food home and share it with their families, said WFP spokeswoman Abbey Spring. Even in years where natural disasters are absent, North Korea lacks about 1 million tons of food to feed its people, according to crop assessments carried out by the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Earlier this month, North Korea entered what is considered the most difficult few months of the year, when food from the last harvest runs out and the new crop of potatoes and vegetables isn't yet available. Until the first crops are harvested in June, many North Koreans are forced to rely on wild food or cakes made of bark or tree leaves that contain little or no nutritional value, WFP said. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
