The crisis in North Korea is getting worse
Copenhagen, December 6, 2011.
I have just returned from an 11-day visit to the closest country in the world, North Korea.
It is incredibly difficult to describe the many experiences – even pictures and film clips cannot convey the many impressions and thoughts that fill me: Powerlessness, need, countless human destinies so different to my own, and above all – hundreds of malnourished children, whose future is more than uncertain.
For 15 years, North Korea has not been able to feed its own population and has been dependent on outside assistance or on the purchase of food that the country can hardly afford to buy. Things went completely wrong toward the end of the 90s when close to 1 million people succumbed to hunger and died after two consecutive catastrophic harvests in 1996 and 1997.
This situation may repeat itself now: After four consecutive natural disasters – flooding last autumn, extreme colds last winter, a drought in the spring, and finally heavy rains with flooding and typhoons this summer, North Korea is now on the verge of collapse, and the statistics from the November 25th UN report speak a clear language:
• An increase of 50-100% in the number of children hospitalised with symptoms of acute malnutrition
• A sharp increase in the number of children who are underweight at birth
• An increase in the number of pregnant women and children with anaemia caused by an insufficient diet
• An estimated number of between 250,000 and 400,000 children nationwide with symptoms of severe, acute malnutrition.
In the midst of this terrible crisis Mission East has reacted: In June we sent 52 tons of food to 17,000 children, and recently we shipped 168 tons of food to cover the needs of 10,000 children during the months of November and December.
I travelled to North Korea with my colleague, Kendrah Jespersen, to supervise the distribution of 168 tons of food. 163 tons of maize and 5.6 tons of TopNutri (a powder with all the vitamins, minerals and proteins a child needs) were distributed to 101 institutions in the eastern province of Kangwon, one of five provinces considered the worst hit by the current crisis. The beneficiaries were children and employees in 42 kindergartens, 56 nurseries, 2 orphanages and 1 children’s hospital.
Read MoreI have just returned from an 11-day visit to the closest country in the world, North Korea.
It is incredibly difficult to describe the many experiences – even pictures and film clips cannot convey the many impressions and thoughts that fill me: Powerlessness, need, countless human destinies so different to my own, and above all – hundreds of malnourished children, whose future is more than uncertain.
For 15 years, North Korea has not been able to feed its own population and has been dependent on outside assistance or on the purchase of food that the country can hardly afford to buy. Things went completely wrong toward the end of the 90s when close to 1 million people succumbed to hunger and died after two consecutive catastrophic harvests in 1996 and 1997.
This situation may repeat itself now: After four consecutive natural disasters – flooding last autumn, extreme colds last winter, a drought in the spring, and finally heavy rains with flooding and typhoons this summer, North Korea is now on the verge of collapse, and the statistics from the November 25th UN report speak a clear language:
• An increase of 50-100% in the number of children hospitalised with symptoms of acute malnutrition
• A sharp increase in the number of children who are underweight at birth
• An increase in the number of pregnant women and children with anaemia caused by an insufficient diet
• An estimated number of between 250,000 and 400,000 children nationwide with symptoms of severe, acute malnutrition.
In the midst of this terrible crisis Mission East has reacted: In June we sent 52 tons of food to 17,000 children, and recently we shipped 168 tons of food to cover the needs of 10,000 children during the months of November and December.
I travelled to North Korea with my colleague, Kendrah Jespersen, to supervise the distribution of 168 tons of food. 163 tons of maize and 5.6 tons of TopNutri (a powder with all the vitamins, minerals and proteins a child needs) were distributed to 101 institutions in the eastern province of Kangwon, one of five provinces considered the worst hit by the current crisis. The beneficiaries were children and employees in 42 kindergartens, 56 nurseries, 2 orphanages and 1 children’s hospital.
