NKorea floods could affect harvest: WFP By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer

NKorea floods could affect harvest: WFP By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer
5 minutes ago



SEOUL, South Korea - Floods that have ravaged North Korean farmland could drastically affect this year's harvest, the U.N. food agency said Wednesday, with damage to roads and railways also expected to hamper outside aid needed to cope with shortages.

The North's state media has said the summer storms that battered wide swaths of the country have left "hundreds" dead or missing, and other aid officials have said the toll was at least 200. The downpours that began last week and continue across the peninsula also have washed away thousands of homes and critical infrastructure.

Paul Risley, spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program, said North Korean officials reported 200,000 to 300,000 people were left homeless, with the total number of those affected probably much larger.

Risley said aid workers had visited areas just north of Pyongyang, where they saw extensive erosion and flooding. The effects were expected to be especially acute because the weather hit during the pollination period for the crops.

"There is concern that this could indicate that these floods could significantly reduce the size of this year's harvest," Risley said from Bangkok, Thailand.

The WFP is the lead aid agency in international efforts to help feed people in North Korea, where famine since the 1990s is believed to have killed as many as 2 million.

The North is especially susceptible to bad weather because of a vicious circle where people strip hillsides of natural vegetation to create more arable land to grow food — increasing the risk of floods.

Tensions over the North's nuclear weapons program have constrained feeding efforts as other countries were reluctant to donate aid to the country, although the situation has recently improved and North Korea shut off its sole operating nuclear reactor last month.

Risley said the WFP had planned to double by September the number of those it feeds to 1.9 million people — mostly children and nursing mothers — after a recent donation of $20 million worth of food from South Korea.

But because of the floods, that aid is expected to be diverted and the WFP likely will launch a new international appeal for assistance, Risley said.

The WFP is able to produce critical food items such as biscuits from factories that it runs inside North Korea. However, it still needs outside commodities such as wheat and rice to make them that are shipped via roads and rail.

"We're very concerned by the reports of damages to infrastructure, since that may affect our ability to quickly bring in emergency food rations," Risley said.

The North was also hit hard by floods last year where South Korean intelligence estimated 800 to 900 people were left dead or missing.