S Korean groups urge immediate food shipments to North
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
SEOUL, June 2 (AFP): Influential South Korean religious and civic group leaders urged their government Monday to send at least 200,000 tonnes of badly needed food aid immediately to North Korea.
The 33 organisation heads say hundreds of thousands of North Koreans face starvation this year due to a serious food shortage in the isolated communist state.
Some foreign analysts believe the North is approaching another famine, a decade after up to one million people died of starvation. Washington last month promised food aid shipments totalling 500,000 tonnes.
South Korea in recent years has provided its neighbour with about 400,000 tonnes of rice and 300,000 tonnes of fertiliser annually. There has been no request for such shipments this year.
The 33 organisation heads say hundreds of thousands of North Koreans face starvation this year due to a serious food shortage in the isolated communist state.
Some foreign analysts believe the North is approaching another famine, a decade after up to one million people died of starvation. Washington last month promised food aid shipments totalling 500,000 tonnes.
South Korea in recent years has provided its neighbour with about 400,000 tonnes of rice and 300,000 tonnes of fertiliser annually. There has been no request for such shipments this year.