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“We never say:
‘We don¡¯t like the government so we won¡¯t send food,?if that food is the
difference between life and death.?
— CATHERINE
BERTINI
executive director, United Nations World Food Program
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Is it always the case that where there is famine the WFP gives
aid?
As long as we can have access
to distribution and [understand] the management of the process, we send
food. We never say: ¡°We don¡¯t like the government so we won¡¯t send food,¡±
if that food is the difference between life and death. We send food to
southern Sudan where we have to spend millions of extra dollars dropping
it out of airplanes, we send food to Angola, we send food to Afghanistan.
We send food everywhere.
You¡¯ve just returned from your fourth trip to North Korea.
What¡¯s the situation today?
I was there
in ¡¯97 [at] the depth of the crisis. The difference, in terms of the
health of the children especially, is immense. In 1997, we saw many
children in schools who were malnourished. Who had orange hair, extended
bellies and were skeletal. Our monitors have been going to the schools
since [then], and so they¡¯ve seen that the children are far healthier. But
we also saw children in pediatric hospitals who were emaciated,
malnourished and had diarrhea. The [situation] is stable but precarious.
How
confident are you that WFP food aid is getting to the hungry in North
Korea?
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Rising Above The Ruins
