A Chinese freighter carrying United Nations' food aid to North Korea has sunk in the Taiwan Strait and 15 crew were missing, the U.N. World Food Program said Wednesday.
The Rome-based WFP said the freighter Cheng Da, which it had chartered to deliver rice to North Korean flood victims, sank on Tuesday in stormy waters. Nine other crew members had been rescued, it said in a statement.The WFP said the freighter was carrying 5,635 tons of rice donated by the United States, Switzerland and Australia and another 903 tons of rice the agency was shipping for the Catholic aid group Caritas.
It said the ship had left Bangkok on March 11.