• According to authoritative United Nations agencies, severe food shortages and possible starvation will affect millions of people in North Korea (DPRK) in coming weeks and months unless substantial food aid is soon provided. Severe summer floods, causing extensive agricultural and infrastuctural damage, and now bitter winter temperatures, have greatly aggravated an already deteriorating food supply situation, creating conditions bordering on famine. In January, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that large numbers of North Korean children will die of malnutrition if more food aid does not soon materialize. A December joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Food Program crop assessment report indicates that 2.1 million children and 500,000 pregnant and nursing women are most at risk.

• Thus far, donor response to appeals by international humanitarian relief agencies has been very limited. The World Food Program issued an unprecedented worldwide appeal for help to victims in the DPRK but thus far has received donations to only provide little more than 10,000 tons of food -- enough to feed just 360,000 people for a month, yet, most of the North's 23 million population is affected. The WFP estimates that North Korea needs at least 1.2 million tons of grain to cover its shortfall and adequately feed its population.

• The World Food Program and International Federation of the Red Cross have appealed for immediate aid from both governments and the private sector. In response, The New York Times and Washington Post have urged the United States and other governments to do more to provide humanitarian assistance to the North. The United States has donated $2,225,000 through the WFP and UNICEF for North Korean famine relief, but because of the magnitude of need, the U.S. is encouraging private organizations to raise funds for humanitarian assistance to the DPRK. As a result, the Summit Council for World Peace was granted a Treasury Department license to seek funds to be transferred to the World Food Program for relief to North Korea.

• The United States has more than just a humanitarian interest in assisting flood victims in the DPRK. Famine can easily lead to serious instability -- both internal and regional where war on the volatile Korean peninsula can break out without warning. Any hostilities unleashed in Korea will inevitably draw in Korea's neighbors, Japan, China and Russia. The U.S. maintains long-standing security commitments with both South Korea and Japan. Moreover, the U.S. signed a vital political agreement with the DPRK in October 1994 for the North to give up its nuclear program in exchange for proliferation-resistant reactors. It is in the American interest to maintain peace and stability in Northeast Asia by encouraging food relief for North Korea.

• The Summit Council for World Peace is an association of former heads of state and government from around the world promoting international peace, reconciliation and humanitarian assistance. It has been very active in fostering and facilitating inter-Korean dialogue and reconciliation for the past six years. Founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Summit Council believes it is ideally suited to appeal for humanitarian relief in the DPRK. It makes no profit in soliciting donations other than to cover modest administrative costs. Its Treasury license number is B-92870. Its federal tax exemption number is: 521236960.

• The World Food Program has opened an office in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, and stationed international personnel in the country to monitor the entire process from the arrival of food at the port to final distribution to the hungry in the countryside. All beneficiaries have been farmers whose homes and food stocks were washed away by the summer floods. While the DPRK Ministry of Food Administration handles the distribution of food aid, the WFP is the only organization in the country permitted and with the capacity to monitor the distribution of food aid to ensure it reaches those most in need. The WFP is satisfied that no food aid has been diverted by the DPRK to other than the intended beneficiaries.

Donations should be made out to the "Summit Council Humanitarian Relief Fund." They will be transferred to the United Nations World Food Program, earmarked for North Korean flood relief. For more information, please contact the Summit Council's office at:

Here is a current AP news article on the World Food Program:

UN Sending Rice To N. Koreans
Date: Thu Mar 07 18:40:45 EST 1996

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, is donating 5,635 tons of rice to help ease a food crisis in North Korea.

The food aid, arranged by the United Nations' World Food Program, is being loaded onto a Chinese freighter for shipment by the end of the week, a port agent in Bangkok said Thursday.

The U.N. agency paid for the rice with donations from the United States, Australia and the four Nordic countries.

North Koreans face possible starvation after floods devastated rice-growing areas last summer. North Korea's Communist government, which for decades promoted the idea of national self-reliance, has made an unprecedented appeal for foreign aid.

The World Food Program arranged a first emergency shipment of 6,540 tons of low-quality rice, also from Thailand, last November. This week's load is scheduled to reach the North Korean port of Nampo after a 10-day voyage, said Alan Mehew, the agent handling the shipment.

The World Food Program said it plans to send a third shipment of at least 3,000 tons.

But North Korea's needs, estimated at 1.2 million tons, dwarf the agency's contributions so far. Millions of children and pregnant women could starve by summer unless donor countries provide more food aid, the agency warned.