-North Korea, the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China, and Russia–have yet to reach even the most basic accord. Still, none of the governments committed to this exercise in conference diplomacy is willing to admit failure.
Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme is predicting a crisis:
While the inhabitants of Asia’s last Stalinist state forage in the mountains for edible roots, the main supplier of food aid to North Korea is facing a shortfall in donations that could forestall efforts to prevent a rerun of the catastrophic famines of the 1990s.
“My sense is we have a crisis in front of us,” James Morris, executive director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said yesterday.
The political situation in North Korea and humanitarian crises in southern Africa, Sudan, the Horn of Africa and Asia have distracted attention and funds from the WFP’s efforts in North Korea, Mr Morris said. The agency, which supports 6.5 million of the state’s 23 million people, faces a food shortfall of 140,000 tons.
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