DATE=05/05/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=WFP/NORTH KOREA (L-Only)

NUMBER=2-289444

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The United Nations World Food Program, W-F-P, says it has been forced to halt food rations to more than one-million hungry people in North Korea because of lack of funds. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports.

TEXT: The World Food Program says six-million people in North Korea need food assistance. But, because

the agency does not have the money to feed them all, it has had to make some tough choices.

W-F-P Spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume says the agency has had to stop distributing food to 675-thousand adolescents in secondary school and 350-thousand old people. She says W-F-P also has had to shut down a

food-for-work program, which affects one-half-million people. She says these were difficult, but necessary

decisions which had to be made.

/// ACT IN FRENCH, ESTABLISH AND FADE UNDER ///

Ms. Berthiaume says W-F-P has to concentrate on feeding the most vulnerable people -- orphans, young children and pregnant and breast-feeding women. She says many of them would probably starve without help from W-F-P.

And, she says, the North Korean government plans a radical cut in its public distribution of food rations. /// OPT /// Government rations will be cut to between 200- and 250- grams of cereal per person. In contrast, she says, the World Food Program distributes at least twice that much to each person living in a refugee camp. /// END OPT ///

Without new contributions, she says, W-F-P will run out of food by July and August, and will no longer be able to provide help even to the most needy.

Ms. Berthiaume says, to date, only the United States, South Korea and Finland are contributing to North Korean food aid, and those contributions only cover half of the needs. (Signed)

NEB/LS/DW/TW