December 2000
December marks the beginning of the very cold period in the DPRK. Winter preparations that have occupied the people since the end of the harvest are all but over. In the southern, more temperate, provinces Emergency Officers report that there is still some field activity. Mainly land development such as preparing seed beds for the winter maize plantings or road repair.
In South Hwangae workers were involved in land restructuring for paddy. This is an ongoing priority to level and standardise paddy to increase production and facilitate mechanisation. It is being done on a province by province basis; in Kangwon in 1999 and North Pyongan in 2000.
During household visits Emergency Officers report seeing little fresh food - the harvest from kitchen gardens is now consumed and the people are reliant on their "kimchi" stocks or whatever they have preserved from the summer. This includes edible grasses and leaves they have collected from the mountains, or seaweed along the coastal areas. Many households have some stocks of the leafy tops of radishes and cabbage that has been hung to dry.
Pipeline
During December WFP DPRK received confirmation of a generous donation of 500,000 Mts. of rice from Japan. This donation, along with incoming shipments of cereals from Australia and the United States will ease the cereals pipeline for 2001. However, donors are urgently requested to pledge pulses and oil. There are no shipments at all of these vital commodities in the pipeline.
Access
Access: 167
No Access: 44
Total counties 211
During December the last of the four counties - Kwail in South Hwangae - announced as accessible during November was visited.
WFP Representative and UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator, David Morton accompanied the WFP Emergency Officer Narayan Rajbanshi on the visit.
The county is situated along the coast and is essentially a fruit-producing county, considered a state farm. It was noted that, as with many industrial plants throughout the DPRK, the bottling, canning and processing plants for the fruit are no longer functioning.
There are no farming co-operatives in the county and any people involved in farming activities are considered state workers.
As in the other newly accessible counties visited in November, there were reports of low attendance at institutions and only a very few patients were seen in the hospital.
There was no discernible reason why this county had been non-accessible other than as a state farm it was not considered appropriate for it to receive food aid.
"Nonetheless, this is clearly a county in hardship" David Morton said "and food aid would be justified". Food will now be allocated to Kwail, and to the other new counties: Paechon and Yonan in South Hwanghae and Hoichang in South Pyongan.
Winter in Ryanggang
Emergency Officer Sungval Tunsiri visits Elderly Beneficiary Pak Kyong Sang
Mr. Pak Kyong Sang is 70 years old and lives with his wife who is 62 in Unhung county - Ryanggang province. Mr. Pak is a retired doctor who formerly worked at the county hospital.
Mr. Pak and his wife were waiting for us at the door as we drew up in the car. They welcomed us to their small 3 roomed home and offered us places on the floor near the wall adjoining the kitchen. The warmth from the wood stove was piped under the floor warming both rooms. This heating system is typical throughout the DPRK and especially important in Ryanggang where temperatures can plummet to - 40°C. On the day of our visit, 12 December, the temperature was -23 centigrade.
Mr. Pak told me that food supplies during the winter were a major problem. Apart from the 450 grams/day of cereals he receives from WFP, they had only his wife’s PDS ration, 200 grams of potato per day. Their age limits them from collecting wild foods from the steep mountains of Ryanggang, he said. And while their children helped out, they have their own families to think about. Mr. Pak also told me that fuel for the stove was a problem. On sunny days that were not too cold his wife would go out to collect dried tree branches but they had to be careful to make sure it lasted.
As we were leaving Mrs. Pak showed me what she was preparing for their lunch - some potato from the PDS ration and kimchi they had prepared in the autumn. I reflected on how little it was to warm them on a cold day. As we said goodbye, Mr. Pak, speaking through our interpreter, asked me to please make sure that food aid continues as he didn’t know how they would cope without it.
Monitoring
Emergency Officers carried out 280 monitoring visits during December. Regular monitoring was undertaken during the first half of the month but was scaled down as staff began to depart for the Christmas/New Year celebrations.
Food for Work
The FFW Project Review Committee (PRC) met on 8 December 2000. The PRC includes representatives from WFP, UNDP (when possible) and the WFP implementing partner, FDRC. The WFP gender focal point also attends when work commitments allow. Project proposals are prepared at the county level and then forwarded to Pyongyang for approval. WFP organises county-level workshops with technical staff on how to prepare project proposals. The PRC reviews all FFW projects prior to implementation. At the December meeting 22 projects were submitted for review, 21 of these were approved. The period November - February, when there is little agricultural activity, has been designated as the main FFW season by the government.
The projects reviewed included stream excavations, embankments, tree planting and road rehabilitation.
Hyesan Sub-Office
For this winter, (January - mid February) monitoring in the remote province of Ryanggang will be reduced due to severe weather and icy road conditions. Emergency Officers assigned to Chongjin will schedule 1 – 2 trips to Hyesan each three weeks - weather permitting. In Hyesan staff will only remain 3-4 nights, the time needed to meet provincial FDRC authorities and monitor the few reachable counties.
Last year conditions in Hyesan were extremely difficult. There were very limited food supplies and temperatures were as low as -35°C.
The Public Distribution System
PDS rations were reduced by 50g this month to 200 grams per person per day. In many provinces distributions of cereals from the harvest are reported to end as early as 9 January.
Staffing
At 31 December WFP had a total of 37 staff members. Of this number, 54 percent were female and 28 nationalities were represented.
Emergency Operation 5959.02, which comes on stream, 1 January 2001, makes provision for an additional 10 staff members. This will bring the total number of WFP staff in DPRK to 56. The recruitment procedures for these additional staff have already begun.
Commodity Arrivals
In December a total of 38,437.4 Mts. of various commodities arrived at DPRK ports and by rail through Sinuiju.
World Food Programme
PO Box 27
Munsudong
Pyongyang
DPR Korea
Tel: 850-2- 3817 220
Fax: 850-2- 3817 639
E-mail: dprk.operations@wfp.org
The Food Aid Organisation of the United Nations System