North Korea should have little trouble feeding its people this autumn, an official of South Korea's Ministry of National Unification said yesterday. But the respite is likely to be short-lived because a severe drought and tidal waves have hit the country's forthcoming harvest which ends in November, making next year's food shortages worse than ever.
The forecasts are based on estimates of North Korea's grain supply-and-demand position from last July to October. It showed a 294,000-tonne shortage until the end of October, well down from the 400,000-tonne shortfall in the same period last year.
Analysts said they were also receiving reports that there would be a respite from hunger for North Koreans as the communist regime prepares to elect its de-facto leader, Mr Kim Jong-il, as general secretary of the ruling Korea Workers Party in October.
"Roughly estimated, North Korea will have a food shortage of 2.8 million tonnes in 1998," an official said. He estimated that North Korea's overall food shortage in 1997 was two million tonnes.
Meanwhile a South Korean newspaper delegation flew to North Korea yesterday with the endorsement of both governments, in the first visit of its kind since the 1950-53 Korean War.
The four-man team from the major Joong-Ang daily, is on an unprecedented assignment to arrange coverage of cultural and historic relics in North Korea.