BRUSSELS, Belgium – The European Union (EU) said Monday it will deliver 10 million euros in emergency food aid to North Korea to help 650,000 people at risk of dying amid growing fears of a worsening hunger crisis.
The European Commission said the aid will mainly go to the northern and eastern provinces of the country “during the most difficult period of the worst year for food production in recent times.”
The situation has become so dire that an increasing number of North Koreans have resorted to eating grass, the commission said. The next main cereal harvest is due in October.
A strict monitoring system was agreed with North Korean authorities to ensure the aid goes to the intended recipients, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm said in a statement.
“Clearly, North Korea’s chronic nutrition problem is turning into an acute crisis in some parts of the country,” said EU humanitarian aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.
“If at any stage we discover that the aid is being diverted from its intended recipients then the commission will not hesitate to end its humanitarian intervention,” she said.
“We simply cannot allow people to die of hunger and for this reason we are determined to monitor the delivery at every stage.”
The food is intended for children under the age of five hospitalised with severe acute malnutrition, pregnant and breastfeeding women, hospital patients and the elderly.
European Commission experts last month found that state-distributed food rations, which two-thirds of the population rely on, have been cut from 400 grams of cereals per person per day in early April to 150 grams in June.
This represents a fifth of the daily average nutritional requirement and equivalent to a small bowl of rice, the commission said.
“Increasingly desperate and extreme measures are being taken by the hard-hit North Koreans, including the widespread consumption of grass,” the statement said.
The EU mission visited hospitals, clinics, kindergartens, nurseries, markets, cooperative farms and state food distribution centres last month to gather evidence of the deteriorating situation.
The commission said the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) will manage and oversee the delivery of the EU aid package to mitigate the risk of food being diverted.
Safeguards were sought because the food assistance will have to be channelled through a highly centralised distribution system managed by the authorities.
WFP will pay 400 visits per month to warehouses, child institutions, households, hospitals, markets and food distribution sites, the commission said.
“Humanitarian aid experts from the European Commission and WFP monitors have been promised unrestricted access for random checks to verify that aid reaches its intended recipients,” it said.
The European Commission has invested 35 million euros in long-term nutrition projects in North Korea between 2007-2010 to address the country’s “structural food insecurity.” A second phase of the programme will be implemented between 2011-2013.
The EU’s executive branch provided around 124 million euros in humanitarian aid to North Korea between 1995-2008 to supply emergency food, improve health care and provide access to clean water and sanitation.