UN body sends first food aid to flood-hit N. Koreans
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A handout photo dated July 24, 2012 shows North Korean residents standing next to a road as flood water pours into a caved-in area in Songchon county, South Pyongan Province. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
SEOUL (AFP) - The World Food Programme has said it is sending a first shipment of emergency food aid to flood-hit areas of North Korea, where torrential rain has killed scores of people and inundated cropland.
The assistance will provide victims with an initial ration of 400g of maize a day for 14 days, the United Nations (UN) body said in a statement posted on Friday on its website.
It said a UN mission that travelled to flood-hit regions earlier in the week found considerable damage to maize, soybean and rice fields.
The country struggles to feed its people even in normal times and suffered a famine in the 1990s that killed hundreds of thousands.
