North Korean spokesman welcomes WFP appeal for food aid

A North Korean spokesman on Monday thanked the World Food Programme (WFP) for its recent appeal for over 650,000 tons of food aid for the country this year.

The spokesman for the DPRK committee for recovering from flood damage told the North Korean news agency KCNA that "we feel grateful to the WFP and other international organizations, various countries and non-governmental organizations for their sympathy with and humanitarian assistance, including food, to the Korean people." "This year's humanitarian food aid by the WFP's appeal will encourage the Korean people in their efforts for recovering from the disasters as early as possible," the spokesman said.

"Though the damage and its consequences are serious, we will make all efforts to fully solve the acute food problem by themselves by doing farming well this year."

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.