KYOTO, Japan (AP) — North Korea is suffering its worst food shortages since a famine killed tens of thousands of people in 1996-97, and more aid is needed to prevent another crisis, a U.N. official said Thursday.
David Morton, the U.N. resident coordinator in North Korea, said that if South Korea, Japan, the United States and other nations provide 810,000 tons of food, relief agencies should able to feed North Korea's people through the winter and into next year's growing season.
"It will be a big step backward for the country if we don't manage to help it enough this year," Morton said in an interview.
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He also said a failure by relief agencies could set back a process of political breakthroughs that began in 1995.