LACK OF FUNDS FORCES WFP TO CUT ASSISTANCE TO HUNGRY NORTH KOREANS

BEIJING - A slump in donations for its emergency operation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is forcing the UN World Food Programme to halt cereal distributions to three million hungry women, children and elderly people. An additional 1.5 million beneficiaries will be deprived of rations in the depths of winter unless substantial fresh pledges are made soon.

“Such across-the-board cutbacks would cause acute suffering on a massive scale”, said Rick Corsino, WFP Country Director for the DPRK. “As we head into the harsh North Korean winter, those affected will find it very difficult to cope. The tragedy is that the people most at risk stand to bear the entire burden. They are already on the edge.”

Helie Lee
Born in Seoul and immigrated with her family to the United States when she was four years old. In 1996, she wrote the best seller "Still Life with Rice" which chronicles the escape of her grandmother, Halmoni, from North Korea in 1950.

"In the Absence of Sun" is a story of one human soul intent on saving the life of another knowing full well the peril she put herself under. Lee is a member of PEN, a community of writers defending freedom of expression and building a literary culture, and Visual Communications, a nonprofit organization that promotes Asian Pacific media arts for the American public.

Rev Douglas Shin
Founder of Exodus 21, an organization which has been helping the North Koreans for the past six years.

Exodus 21's Seoul Train - to borrow the cover story of Newsweek's story on these underground railroads, brings food and medicine to assist the North Koreans in their escape from North Korea.