Action by Churches Together (ACT)
Alert - Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea - No 1/2000
WFP Cereal Dearth Threatens
Geneva, 19 January 2000



The current state of the World Food Program (WFP) pipeline in the
Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) is giving cause for concern.  
Current projections indicate that cereal stocks will have run out by the
end of April, i.e. around the time of the "lean season" in the DPRK.  
There is inevitably concern that support for the most vulnerable
beneficiary groups will then no longer be possible.

At the moment, this is essentially a cereal problem as oil will be
sufficient until August and pulses until September.  The reason for this
impending shortage is that the necessary pledges that would have prevented
this cereal gap from opening up have not been forthcoming.  In real terms
it means that nurseries, kindergartens, pregnant and nursing women,
orphanages, hospitals, the elderly, primary and secondary schools will not
receive any cereal distributions once the pipeline has dried up.

Any assistance offered to provide cereals during this period would be
invaluable.


Thank you for your attention.

For further information please contact:

ACT Co-ordinator, Miriam Lutz (phone ++41 22 791 6033 or mobile phone ++
41 79 203 6055)
or
ACT Appeals Officer, Neville Pradhan (phone ++41 22 791 6035 or mobile
phone ++41 79 285 2916)




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Action by Churches Together (ACT) is a worldwide network of churches and
their related agencies, meeting human need through co-ordinated emergency
response.  The ACT Coordinating Office is based with the World Council of 
Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Switzerland.
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   Ecumenical Centre                          Phone: ++41-22-791.60.33
   150, route de Ferney                         Fax: ++41-22-791.65.06
   1211 Geneva 2                              Telex: 415 730 OIK CH
   Switzerland                                 http://www.act-intl.org



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