North Korea is slowly recovering from a famine in the late 1990s but is still in the middle of a humanitarian emergency with no relief in sight, UN aid officials warned today.
Representatives of five UN agencies said crop production in North Korea was growing, more people were being fed and far fewer children suffered malnutrition than five years ago.
But the impoverished and isolated North is in the midst of a "chronic emergency . . . without a clear end in sight", according to Mr Rick Corsino, the World Food Programme's (WFP) director in Pyongyang, as the United Nations appealed for $221 million in aid for 2004.
"By all measures, [North Korea] remains a country in need of massive humanitarian support. The consequences of doing nothing are very substantial. If there's no response, or too weak a response, parts of the country will very likely revert to a food crisis."
Aid donations to North Korea had not met demand this year or last, he said. The WFP was given about two-thirds of the aid it asked for and UNICEF's projects this year were 50 percent underfunded.
The bulk of what the United Nations seeks this year - $190 million - is for food aid designed to help 6.5 million people.