DATE=11/18/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N / NORTH KOREA (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-269406

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: United Nations aid agencies say North Korea is facing a critical food shortage and will need continued international assistance next year. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the World Food Program and Food and Agricultural Organization have now released results of a mission they undertook in North Korea last month to evaluate the country's crop and food supply.

TEXT: The U-N agencies say there were signs earlier in the year that North Korea was making a moderate recovery in domestic food production. Unfortunately, they say, a combination of drought and two severe typhoons in August and September have dashed these hopes.

Therefore they note that North Korea once again, for the seventh year in a row, will be dependent on international aid to feed its hungry population.

World Food Program spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume says the country will need nearly two million tons of food in the coming year.

/// BERTHIAUME ACT///

We are not in a famine situation anymore as we were in 1997. But that doesn't mean that people are not hungry. Yes, they are. And last year, W-F-P fed eight million people, among them all the children, kindergarten, primary school, women breast feeding, pregnant women also, because we were seeing more and more women giving birth to very little babies because they were suffering from malnutrition.

/// END ACT ///

A random nutritional survey carried out by U-N agencies in 1998 found that North Korea suffered from the highest rate of malnutrition in East

Asia. It showed that 16 percent of the population had acute malnutrition and 62 percent suffered from chronic malnutrition resulting in stunting.

North Korea has a population of about 22 million. The country has more than 200 districts. Ms. Berthiaume says W-F-P does not deliver food to

districts to which it has no access.

/// BERTHIAUME 2nd ACT ///

We just deliver the food where we can go and monitor and make sure that the food that we're giving to people is going to the right people. Now we distribute a lot of our food to institutions, schools, orphanages, institutions for handicapped, hospitals - so it is easier to monitor for us. We are quite confident that our food goes to the people in need.

/// END ACT ///

The U-N agencies are now in the process of figuring out with the North Korean government how much food assistance will be required from the

international community in the coming year. The U-N expects to launch an appeal in several weeks.

(Signed)

NEB/LS/ALW/PLM