$221m aid plea for North Korea

A GROUP of UN agencies is asking for $221 million in international aid for North Korea, where food shortages, poverty and poor health care services have put the country in a state of “chronic emergency”, an agency spokesman said yesterday.

Rick Corsino, director of the World Food Programme in North Korea, said Pyongyang still faces a tremendous food shortage despite improved harvests, and malnutrition has reached "alarming rates", while health services are "still precarious and likely worsening". He said there were some signs of improvement from last year most notably in the capital city of Pyongyang including more regular power and water supplies, but those were not enough to help in the country's situation overall.

"It's a continuation of a chronic emergency and one without a clear end in sight," Corsino said. "By all measures, the DPRK remains a country in need of massive humanitarian support," DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.