지난 수십년만에 사상유례없는 식량위기에 처한 북한 North Korea Faces Worst Food Crisis in Decade By NEIL MACFARQUHAR Published: October 23, 2008 목요일 UN에 의해 발표된 새로운 보고서에 의하면 금년에, 지난 수십년 동안에 처음으로 사상 유례없는 식량을 직면하게 되는 북한을 걱정하고 있다고 한다. 또한 설사로 고생하고 있는 어린이들의 수가 계속 증가하고 있다고 한다.. 1990년대 중반이후 처음으로 수백만명의 북한 주민들이 식량부족에 직면해 있으며,, 그부족량은 1백50만톤 이상이 될것이라고 한다. 그러나 군대와 노동당 간부들은 이러한 식량부족에서 오는 고통을 당하지 않을것이지만, 전체 인구의 4/3정도가 식량 소비량을 현저히 줄였으며, 그중의 절반 이상은 하루에 2끼니를 때우기도 힘들다고 보고서는 전하고 있다. 이기사를 읽으면서 답답하여 잠깐 옮겨 보았다. 자세한 내용은 아래 원문을 읽으면 된다. UNITED NATIONS — North Korea is facing its worst food crisis in a decade, with a large shortfall expected this year, according to a new report released by the United Nations on Thursday. At the same time, the number of children suffering from diarrhea has increased sharply. Millions of people in the country are facing “severe deprivations” not seen since the mid-1990s, the report said, with the shortfall of food expected to reach more than one and a half million tons this year. While the military and the elite are not suffering from cutbacks, more than three-quarters of all households have reduced their food consumption and more than half are eating only two meals per day, the report said. “Sadly, even though the harvest was getting better, we have had devastating floods in 2006 and 2007,” Vitit Muntarbhorn, the author of the report, said at a news conference. “Over the past year we have had very worrying information of a very chronic food shortage.” Mr. Muntarbhorn, a Thai law professor who serves as the special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea, has not been allowed to enter the country. Child malnutrition and illnesses have been rising, with nearly twice as many children suffering from diarrhea than the number recorded in the last United Nations nutritional survey conducted with the government in 2004, the report said. Two-thirds of the country’s 23 million people have a poor diet, it said. The World Food Program, which started a special program to reach 1.9 million North Koreans in 2006, is now expanding it in the hopes of helping 6.5 million people, Mr. Muntarbhorn said. The government has been more cooperative with the program, he said, allowing the agency to monitor the distribution of aid and to conduct some random checks at the local level. The report painted a grim picture of other human rights issues in North Korea, perhaps the world’s most closed country. Government permission is required to own a cellphone or computer, and radios come preset to the government station. Mr. Muntarbhorn said that continuing talks aimed at halting North Korea’s nuclear weapons program excluded human rights issues, but should be used to provide some leverage for improving the human rights situation. The talks are being conducted by a group of nations that include the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.