Korean relief effort hitting food stocks

THE World Food Programme warned yesterday that the relief effort for those hit by the devastating North Korea train blast was depleting limited food stocks intended to feed 6.5 million other desperate people.

The United Nations’ food agency said it would launch a $1 million appeal for 1,000 tonnes of emergency food aid to help thousands of North Koreans affected by the explosion in Ryongchon that killed at least 150.

“We are in the short-term meeting the emergency food aid needs of these people through the existing stocks,” said Anthony Banbury, the programme’s regional director for Asia.