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UNICEF to appeal on behalf of DPRK children

Tuesday, 25 March 1997: UNICEF will appeal for special high energy milk to deal with severe child malnutrition in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "We have just been informed that the DPR Korea government food distribution system expects its supplies to be exhausted in May-June," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy." Given the widespread dependence in the country on this public distribution of food, and scattered reports already of severe child malnutrition, we feel the international community should be ready to act quickly."

The UNICEF appeal for high energy milk -- a combination of skim milk powder, sugar and oil with some additional mineral salts -- for rehabilitation of acutely malnourished children will form part of an overall United Nations appeal now being finalized for release to donors next month.

"The government's news suggests we may have less than eight weeks before public distribution of food in the country completely ceases," Ms. Bellamy said. "Procuring and shipping major quantities of most foodstuffs is likely to take at least that long." To meet immediate needs, she added, UNICEF was planning to airlift an initial supply of high energy milk to Pyongyang in the coming week.

UNICEF will also continue its on-going activities to provide vaccines for children, multi-vitamin tablets for pregnant and lactating mothers, and seeds and seedlings for nursery gardens. UNICEF fears that if the present indications of severe malnutrition among children are the tip of an impending iceberg, it could quickly become "a very big iceberg," Ms. Bellamy said.

The government policy of equal food distribution throughout the countryside had earlier mitigated the effects of food shortages. By the same token, the appearance of an increasing number of cases of severe malnutrition now suggests the problem could be widespread. Isolated symptoms of malnutrition could be the signal of much worse to come, and this could happen quickly.

"The international community will have to move fast, both to prevent malnutrition through additional food supplies and to treat nutritional debilitation, particularly among small children, with the help of therapeutic food," Ms. Bellamy said. The World Food Programme, the major UN channel for food supplies, has announced it intends to expand plans for child-feeding to cover the country's 2.4 million children under six, a five-fold increase in tonnages planned one month ago.

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