The following is the testimony by John Powell, Regional Director for Asia
at the World Food Programme, before the Subcommittee on East Asia and the
Pacific of the US House of Representatives International Relations
Committee on May 2, 2002.

---------------------

Congressional Panel Presentation

On behalf of the World Food Programme I would like to thank this
Congressional Panel for the invitation to speak with you about the food
situation in DPR (North) Korea. The timing of the hearing is opportune
because I have recently returned from a 13 day Mission to North Korea. The
purpose of the Mission was to take stock of our emergency operation in the
country. During that Mission I visited WFP Sub-Offices in Sinuiju, Hamhung,
Chonqjin, Hyesan and Wonsan; as well as Pyongyang. I saw WFP activities in
each of these areas, visiting orphanages, nurseries, kindergartens, primary
schools, pediatric hospitals and food for work activities. I spoke with
pregnant women, nursing mothers and the elderly. I also met with Government
Officials at National, Provincial and County level.

Let me share with you a few snapshots of what we saw:

* Power-the lack of power is evident everywhere, especially in the
industrial sector where factories sit idle, causing considerable
unemployment and underemployment, particularly in the Northeast of the
country. Lack of power and other inputs also means less fertilizer, which
means less food production. Lack of power means very little light,
especially in the winter; and the hand- carrying of water, whether in rural
settings or in apartment buildings in the urban areas. It is a huge problem
for hospitals; and not much less for the citizens of the country. It also
causes problems for our local food production where limited and erratic
power supply means that often the factory equipment cannot function.

* Hillside and urban agriculture-we saw farmers preparing land for planting
on slopes where it was quite impossible to stand erect. This is land that
should be under forest cover, not under cultivation. Yet a clear sign that
any land on which food could be produced-however tenuously-would be used,
despite the negative impact on the environment that this practice
causes---including increased vulnerability to flooding. In urban areas we
saw land cultivated from the roadside to the very edge of the apartment
buildings. In rural areas, the few metres of land around the houses are
intensely cultivated - including on the roofs.

* Children's nutrition-there was a visible improvement in the health status
of the children. We no longer saw evidence of the widespread acute
malnutrition seen in the previous years. Children in kindergartens and
primary schools were active and alert. A far cry from the reports of just a
few years ago, when children were visibly lethargic and with the usual
signs associated with the onset of famine---orange hair and skin
discolorations.

* Primary schools--we spoke with a 70 year old Principal of a primary
school who said that student attendance had increased from 75% to 95% since
the introduction of WFP biscuits. And the schoolteachers, who also received
the biscuits, were more regular in their attendance and more active with
the children. Primary school children - some 1.4 million of them - make up
the largest number of people who receive WFP food assistance.

So, while great strides have been made in reducing the levels of acute
malnutrition, the kind most associated with famine, chronic malnutrition
remains at unacceptably high levels. It is estimated that more than 40% of
children under 5 remain malnourished because even with the full WFP rations
the children may not be getting enough food.

On the issue of the alleged diversion of WFP food assistance to the
military, let me be direct. The army takes what it wants from the national
harvest up front, in full. And it takes it in the form of food Koreans
prefer: Korean rice. The food that WFP provides is overwhelmingly maize or
wheat (or, in 2001, Japanese "brown rice"), commodities not preferred by
those in power. They do no need to take WFP food. Nor have we any evidence
that they do.

As to monitoring, WFP has its' main Office in Pyongyang and five
Sub-Offices located throughout the country. We have some 50 international
staff who together make between 300-400 monitoring visits every month of
the year. They visit all of the types of institutions through which WFP
food is distributed-orphanages, nurseries, kindergartens, pediatric
hospitals and schools, both primary and secondary. They visit pregnant
women and nursing mothers at home, as they do the elderly. They visit
Food-for Work sites. And always they speak with those who are receiving the
food.

As a result we have amassed a considerable amount of observational data
during our seven years in the country. And when we have concerns about the
food distribution we do something about it. In 2000, for example, we cut
out the general hospital feeding progamme because we were not sufficiently
confident that the food was reaching those for whom it was intended. And,
in 2001, we did not proceed with a 92,000 tonnes Relief and Recovery
Operation because we could not reach agreement with the Authorities on the
number of additional staff that WFP would need to properly monitor that
Operation. So, like in any WFP operation anywhere in the world, we do not
know where each and every bag of food is going but we do have a reasonable
degree of assurance that the food provided through WFP gets to those who
need it.

Yet we still have a long way to go to lift our monitoring standards in
North Korea to the same level as they are in most other countries. Let me
explain the main reasons why we are not satisfied. We are not satisfied
because we do not yet have access to all of the counties to assess needs
and to provide food to those who need it. Our "no access no food" policy
means, we think, that many people in genuine need of food assistance are
not reached. We are not satisfied because we are not able to make random
spot checks. This diminishes the effectiveness of any set of monitoring
arrangements. We are not satisfied because we are not permitted to bring
Korean speakers into North Korea as WFP staff members, which means that we
do not have the opportunity to interact directly with those who receive WFP
food assistance. And we want to have access to farmers markets to have a
better understanding of the relative price of the food commodities bought,
sold or bartered. These are matters that are taken up consistently--and
persistently--with the Authorities.

Other matters of special concern to us relate to the working conditions of
WFP staff in the country, especially in the Sub-Offices. We do not yet have
a medical evacuation procedure agreed with the Authorities, placing staff
members- and their supervisors-in a very uncomfortable position. After the
completion of the daily monitoring visits, our staff working in the
Sub-Offices used to not have much freedom of movement outside of the
grounds of the hotels in which they were accommodated without prior
permission; and even then they were to be accompanied. This restriction has
been somewhat relaxed over the last few months. Most recently in Hyesan,
for example, our staff can walk now to a monument and back unaccompanied.
Our staff are not allowed to have satellite phones or vehicle-to-vehicle
communications or secure international communications arrangements. We are
not allowed to have nationals of Japan or the Republic of (South) Korea on
staff; and we have only one United States national in the country. (He is
the Country Director.) Again, these are matters that we constantly raise
with the Authorities.

This being said, we have come a very long way with the DPRK Authorities
over the past four years, as trust and confidence has been built. Some of
these milestones include:

* The establishment of five WFP Sub-Offices throughout the country; and 50
international staff, many of who are located in the Sub-Offices. A
remarkable advance on the three staff members, all of who were located in
Pyongyang, which was the situation in 1995.

* WFP is the only agency to have access to so many counties, some 163 of
206; and have staff permanently assigned outside of Pyongyang. The number
of counties to which we have access has increased from 145 in 1998 to 163
in 2002. This means that we can now reach more people who need help - about
85% of the population.

* Since 2000, WFP international staff have been able to take Korean
language training lessons in Pyongyang. A few have a pretty fair grasp of
the language and can at least detect when interpretation is not accurate.

* The Government has agreed to a new Nutrition Survey to follow up the 1998
Nutrition Survey. This has been a longstanding issue on our agenda; and the
Government's agreement is a big step forward. A technical proposal for the
conduct of the Survey is now with the authorities. The Survey is scheduled
for the third quarter of this year, with the results being available before
the end of the year. The Survey will be a joint UNICEF/WFP/DPRK
undertaking, with technical support being provided through an international
academic consortium. The results of the Survey will enable us to compare
the situation in 2002 with that of 1998; to measure the progress of the
nutritional status of children; and to improve the planning and targeting
of interventions for their benefit.

* The Government has re-affirmed its commitment to give WFP a full list of
the institutions though which WFP food assistance is provided. This
arrangement will enable WFP to increase the randomness of its monitoring.
It is, of course, not the same as random access. But it is progress. The
Authorities informed us that this list is to be made available "shortly."

The 1998 Nutrition Survey found that about 62% of children under seven
years of age were suffering chronic malnutrition; the kind that arises from
eating insufficient nutritious food day in and day out over a protracted
period. That same Survey showed that about 16% of children were acutely
malnourished, the kind that is generally associated with the existence of
famine. WFP does not have the luxury of saying that it will leave because
our minimum operational conditions are not met. We need to remain engaged
and persevere, and work towards achieving those conditions. They will not
be met if we all simply pull out. And the resultant suffering for the
country's most vulnerable would verge towards the unimaginable.

We remain optimistic that with persistent principled negotiation - and the
support of the international community - much more progress can be made.

As to resources, WFP will run out of food in July or August this year
unless new pledges are made urgently. The urgency arises because it takes
from 2-4 months to translate a pledge from a donor to food into the stomach
of a child in North Korea. Beginning this month we are having to eliminate
the distribution of food to some 675,000 secondary school children; and
some 350,000 of the elderly will not receive any food rations through WFP.
Caregivers in institutions---some 144,000 of them, mainly women---will not
receive WFP rations. And food-for Work must be sharply cut back, thereby
reaching far fewer urban underemployed in the Northeast, affecting perhaps
500,000 people. Some 1.5 million people will not get food because of the
shortfall.

DPRK is a mountainous country with limited arable land and a short growing
season. It cannot produce enough food to meet the basic requirements of its
people. And it does not have the foreign exchange to import that food. For
2002, a "normal bad year", the gap between the quantity of food that is
available (food production plus imports) and the needs of the North Korean
people is about 1.5 million metric tons of cereals.

WFP does not seek to fill the national gap. We calculate the food needs of
the most vulnerable groups-pregnant women, nursing mothers, children and a
small percentage of the elderly and those most dependent on the Public
Distribution System. Women and children comprise about 90% of those who
receive WFP food. For some categories of beneficiary the food is provided
year-round, for example pregnant women, nursing mothers and children in
primary schools. For other categories of beneficiary such as secondary
school children, the food is targeted geographically to those living in the
urban areas of the most food insecure Provinces, mainly in the Northeast.
For other categories, such as Food- for Work beneficiaries, the food
assistance is provided only during certain times of the year, typically
over the period April through August when these people must depend on a
Public Distribution System that cannot cope.

WFP needs 611,000 metric tons of food for calendar year 2002 to meet the
needs of the 6.4 million beneficiaries, most of who are women and children
who live in the counties to which we have access. We have available about
half of that amount. The United States, the Republic of Korea and Finland
have given to this year's operation; and we are hopeful that other donors
will step forward.

As I indicated earlier, we are having to cut back on our planned
distributions. Doing this will stretch the reach of our support to pregnant
women, nursing mothers and children aged from six months to 10 years for a
few more months. It will not be enough to meet their requirements for the
year. An erstwhile recipient of WFP food assistance will therefore have to
rely on a Public Distribution System that will provide her with perhaps
200-250 grammes of cereal per day. Or about half of the ration of a refugee
in a camp. There is no doubt that the people are hungry and need the food.
Without that food, the prospects are chilling. Those who rely on WFP
assistance are looking down the barrel of a food crisis.

Before closing, on behalf of WFP I would like to thank the people of the
United States for their unstinting generosity to the most vulnerable people
in North Korea--their women and children. The United States has already
contributed some 155,000 metric tones of food to the Emergency Operation
for 2002. Without this food, the situation would be much more serious; and
it would have become so much earlier. And it has been the major contributor
to our Emergency Operations over the years of our work in that country. The
United States has also been a strong and clear voice in support of the kind
of measures that would further improve the operational performance of our
work; and in improving the working conditions of our staff. And, perhaps
most importantly, the United States has consistently shown the commitment
to separate its political agenda from humanitarian concern, holding true to
the principle spelled out by former president Reagan "A hungry child knows
no politics". This is not always an easy principle to follow; and we admire
you being able to do so.

We thank you.