NORTH KOREA: COUNTRY FACES FOOD SHORTAGE

Описание: (14 Nov 2000) Eng/Ger/Nat

As winter approaches North Korea, the country is facing food shortages and many hospitals are out of drugs.

It's already snowing in the Asian country and in most areas there are also chronic energy and fuel shortages.

In addition, there is a shortage of fertilizer.

All this puts the health of many malnourished North Korean children at risk.

In one hospital supplies were so short that a malnourished child was being fed rehydration fluid from an intravenous drip made from an old beer bottle.

The Secretary General at Caritas International, Duncan Maclaren, said the stocks at the hospitals and kindergartens and nurseries are enough to last the next few months.

But there are fears that towards the end of the winter, in February and beyond, more humanitarian help will be needed.

Two typhoons and torrential rains in August and mid-September devastated roads and bridges needed to transport food around North Korea and they are still being repaired.

Famine conditions peaked in 1997 in the isolated Communist state with a population of 22-point-5 million (m).

The food shortages of the last few years - when North Korea has been hit by a succession of droughts and floods - have been made up by international food aid.

The Director of International Cooperation at Caritas in Hong Kong, Kathi Zelwegger, says it's going to be another harsh winter -- without heating and hardly any medicine or food in the hospitals.

She says it's going to be a difficult time again, and for Caritas it is clear that assistance has to continue.

Two Vatican officials recently visited Pyongyang, holding a rare conventional Catholic mass at Changchung church, North Korea's sole Catholic church.

The Mass was part of an official visit to talk with North Korean officials.

In June North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il reportedly gave his approval for Pope John Paul to visit North Korea.

The Pope has contributed 250-thousand U-S dollars annually for three years to Caritas' plans to fight poverty and hunger in North Korea in June.

Duncan Maclaren said it was the first time Monsignor Celestine had celebrated Mass in this church, a sign of the slight opening of North Korea to the rest of the world.

While there may be brighter future for Catholicism in North Korea, the future looks grim for most North Koreans facing another bitter winter.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well, we saw the stocks that the hospitals and kindergartens and nurseries had and they've enough to last them the next few months. But there's no doubt about it, that towards the end and the hardest part of the winter, in February and beyond, they will need more international humanitarian help."
SUPER CAPTION: Duncan Maclaren, Secretary General at Caritas International

SOUNDBITE: (German)
"It's going to be another harsh winter -- and there is no heating and hardly any medicine or food in the hospitals."
SUPER CAPTION: Kathi Zellweger, Director of International Cooperation at Caritas Hong Kong

SOUNDBITE: (German)
"It's going to be a difficult time again, and for Caritas it is clear that assistance has to continue."
SUPER CAPTION: Kathi Zellweger, Director of International Cooperation at Caritas Hong Kong

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"This was the first time that he (monsignor Celestine ) had celebrated mass in this church, and i think that perhaps is a sign of the slight opening to the rest of the world of
north Korea."
SUPER CAPTION: Duncan Maclaren, Secretary General at Caritas International

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