N Korea reforms bring new risk

By Charles Scanlon
BBC correspondent in Seoul

A looser economy means rising food prices

The World Food Programme has expressed concern about a new class of urban poor in North Korea - those who have suffered from recent market reforms.

The UN agency already feeds 6.5 million North Koreans and says it will have to look after hundreds of thousands more.

Some farmers, though, are benefiting from the reforms, as they are receiving cash payments for their crops.

South Korea, meanwhile, has offered another 100,000 tons of food aid to its northern neighbour.

The WFP says it now has enough food to feed hungry North Koreans through the winter - donations from South Korea, Japan and the United States have continued despite the confrontation over the North's development of nuclear weapons.

But the agency's Executive Director, James Morris, said there were still damaging levels of malnourishment in the country. The average North Korean seven-year-old is barely half the weight of his South Korean counterpart, and 20 centimetres shorter.

Mr Morris expressed concern about hundreds of thousands of newly-destitute people in the cities. Many worked for industries hit by the introduction of market reforms two years ago.

Rising food prices and an end to rationing mean that many will become dependant on foreign donations.

But Mr Morris said the reforms had had a positive impact in the countryside, and could help to revitalise the economy in the longer run.

North Korea is increasingly asking for development aid in addition to food handouts, but donors are reluctant to help while the communist government continues to restrict the activities of aid agencies.

The WFP says co-operation has improved, and it can monitor the distribution of much of the food it brings into the country, but it concedes the situation is not perfect and it is still unable to conduct random checks.