WASHINGTON: Parts of North Korea are expected to run out of food in less than two months, even if foreign donors agree to provide aid, a United States relief group said.
The US and South Korea have reacted cautiously to reports of dire food shortages in the North, with some officials suspecting that the isolated communist state is exaggerating the problem to win assistance.
But Samaritan's Purse, one of five US groups that visited North Korea in February, said on Wednesday that a harsh winter has reduced crop yield by up to half.
Mr Ken Isaacs, the group's vice-president for programmes and government relations, said the groups want to provide 160,000 to 175,000 tonnes of food to North Korea, but it would be impossible to arrange shipments in time. 'If a green light was given today, that food probably isn't going to be in North Korea for about three months,' he said.
Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans died in a famine in the 1990s. But North Korea, which prides itself on its philosophy of self-reliance, abruptly kicked out US aid groups in 2009.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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