Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea cut rations for farmers in order to stock up on supplies for its military, a South Korean aid group said.
``Central party officials, after receiving this year's harvest reports from the Agricultural Ministry, were told that the lower-than-expected amount of harvest would not allow them to meet the quota for military stockpiles,'' Buddhist aid group Good Friends, which obtains information through contacts within North Korea, said in its newsletter today.
All regions were told to set aside only three to five months of rations for the farming community, instead of the whole year, and divert the rest to the military, it said. The agency was among the first aid groups to disclose earlier this year that food shortages in the communist country were worsening.
North Korea, a country of 23 million people, has been plagued by years of famine caused by floods, drought and economic mismanagement. The South Korean government said in August it is considering a United Nations request to help raise $60 million to buy food and other essential supplies for its neighbor.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization forecast North Korea's grain harvest this year would reach 3.5 million tons. The South Korean embassy in Beijing estimates that North Korea has harvested about 4.4 million tons, leaving a shortfall of about 990,000 tons.
North Korea faces a ``potential humanitarian crisis,'' the UN said in April. Aid groups, including Good Friends, have since reported deaths from starvation. |