EU to provide emergency food aid to North Korea

(BRUSSELS) - The European Union will deliver 10 million euros in emergency food aid to North Korea to feed 650,000 people facing starvation amid growing fears of a worsening hunger crisis.

The European Commission said Monday the aid would mainly go to the northern and eastern provinces of the secluded communist country "during the most difficult period of the worst year for food production in recent times".

"Increasingly desperate and extreme measures are being taken by the hard-hit North Koreans, including the widespread consumption of grass," the 27-nation EU's executive arm said in a statement.

Following a harsh winter and floods, the aid will help "keep them alive" during the "leanest period of the year" before the next main cereal harvest in October, said David Sharrock, a European Commission spokesman.

A strict monitoring system was agreed with North Korean authorities to ensure the aid, a "one-off" contribution, goes to the intended recipients, Sharrock said.

"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 reclusive Stalinist state has relied on international aid to help feed its people since a famine in the mid- to late-1990s killed hundreds of thousands.

The United States sent a team in May to assess whether to resume food aid, but no decision has yet been announced.

Following the EU's announcement, the South Korean government said it had no plans to provide the North with large-scale government food aid.

The EU food aid is intended for children under the age of five hospitalised with severe acute malnutrition, pregnant and breastfeeding women, hospital patients and the elderly.

EU experts last month found that state-distributed food rations, which two-thirds of the population rely on, were slashed from 400 grammes of cereals per person per day in early April to 150 grammes in June.

This represents a fifth of the daily average nutritional requirement and is equivalent to a small bowl of rice.

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) would manage and oversee the delivery of the EU aid package to prevent food being diverted.

Safeguards were sought because the food assistance will 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. The commission said EU and WFP aid experts were promised unrestricted access for random checks.

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.