Hundreds of thousands of people could soon perish in North Korea's "invisible famine", an aid group warned yesterday, as it declared the country's drought-ravaged summer crop was now beyond salvage.
Mr Watt Santatiwat, Asia-Pacific vice-president of the Christian charity World Vision International, said that, "unless the world responds soon with massive humanitarian aid, hundreds of thousands of people, and especially children, could die."
"In many respects, North Korea is experiencing an `invisible' famine," he told a press conference after a four-day trip to North Korea.
"But it is nonetheless real. It is like an iceberg. You can only see a small tip of the iceberg, but beneath the surface looms a tragedy that could be a hundred times worse than the sinking of the Titanic. In that disaster, more than 1,500 people died."
"The situation in North Korea is getting worse. There's no question about it," said Mr Dave Toycen, president of the agency's Canadian branch, who arrived in Hong Kong yesterday after a trip to North Korea. "We are very worried about the momentum of the starvation there."
Mr Toycen said that signs of widespread famine were everywhere. "You see people all over the countryside picking grasses," he said. "They're always picking something to eat. That's quite obvious all through the countryside."
Describing one scene, Mr Toycen said: "There was someone, 11 or 12 years old, and he was just a walking ghost. I mean he was extremely malnourished. That was the most extreme case I saw but I saw many other children who were clearly malnourished."
He said there had been more access to famine regions in recent months and attributed this to North Korea's accepting the extent of the crisis and the need for urgent international food relief.
The North Korean government must decide whether it is going to "save face or save lives".
World Vision was one of the first relief groups to bring the Somali and Ethiopian famines to international attention.
Its Asia-Pacific vice-president, Mr Santatiwat said he saw fields of corn near Kaechon, 116 km north of Pyongyang, "which were slowly drying up because of the drought".
"It is now too late for rain to help," he said. "The average height of the corn was only three to four feet instead of the five to six feet for a normal crop at this stage.
"A government official told us that the maize would yield only 100-120 grains per head, compared to the normal yield of 500 grains per head. The official estimated that 60 per cent of the crop has been destroyed by drought."
Mr Santatiwat said one reason why the international response to the crisis had been lagging was because the media was unable to travel freely in North Korea and report without restrictions.
"The people of North Korea are very proud, and it is very difficult for them to ask for assistance from others. They don't want to admit that their people are starving, to allow the media to take pictures of the people who are on the verge of dying."