SEOUL, March 29 (UPI) -- The U.N. food agency Thursday warned North Korea is facing a severe food crisis despite the country's disarmament commitment.
In a Seoul news conference, Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the head of the World Food Program's office in North Korea, called for more international handouts to ease famine in the communist country.
North Korea is facing a shortfall of 1 million metric tons of food as the Feb. 13 accord on ending Pyongyang's nuclear drive has failed to gather more donations for starving North Koreans, he said.
The deal "has not translated into tangible support to the hungry poor (in the North)," said de Margerie, who just returned from a six-day trip to the North. "The WFP is ready to increase help to the people of the DPRK, but we urgently need significant donor contributions to do so," he said.
