2006年VOA标准英语-UN Warns North Korea Faces Major Food Crisis

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
22 December 2006

United Nations aid agencies warn North Korea will be facing a major food crisis next spring unless donors¹ support critically needed humanitarian² assistance programs. They are appealing to donors to forget politics and think of the victims who need help. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

The U.N. Children's Fund says the outlook for North Korea is very grim. It says food production is down by 20 percent and multilateral and bilateral³ assistance covers only a fraction of the needs.

UNICEF spokesman, Michael Bociurkiw, urges donors to look beyond politics and renew their support for humanitarian programs.

"We are saying this because children represent the future hope of DPR Korea, yet they are the victims of ongoing⁴ political turmoil⁵, which has seen a reduction in international assistance. Severe flooding during the summer in four provinces decimated internal food production," he said. "And, with far less food coming into the country because of the government's decision not to accept humanitarian aid, the impending⁶ shortages foretell⁷ a dire⁸ situation for people in North Korea, particularly women and children who are the most vulnerable."

Bociurkiw notes it is not easy to provide aid to people in North Korea because many areas in the country are off limits. He says UNICEF and other agencies are unable to monitor how funds are spent because they cannot go everywhere. He concedes this creates problems in appealing for money.

He says UNICEF has received only one half of its $11 million appeal. He says lack of money makes it very difficult for the agency to provide supplementary⁹ feeding programs for malnourished children. Nor can it carry out its education, health, water and sanitation¹⁰ activities.

The World Food Program says it too is short of cash. Spokesman Simon Pluess says WFP has received $15 million from its $100 million appeal. He says this is not enough to assist all of the nearly two million people in urban and rural areas that are in need of food aid.

"Right now, we can feed only about 700,000 people in 29 counties," he said. "But, actually what we would want to do is feed 1.9 million people in 50 of the most insecure counties."

The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates North Korea will run a one million ton cereal deficit¹¹ next year. Pluess says the shortage is likely to be higher than that because of the heavy flooding that occurred in July.

1 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

3 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。

4 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

5 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

6 impending   

a.imminent, about to come or happen

参考例句：

• Against a background of impending famine, heavy fighting took place. 即将发生饥荒之时，严重的战乱爆发了。
• The king convoke parliament to cope with the impending danger. 国王召开国会以应付迫近眉睫的危险。

7 foretell   

v.预言，预告，预示

参考例句：

• Willow trees breaking out into buds foretell the coming of spring.柳枝绽青报春来。
• The outcome of the war is hard to foretell.战争胜负难以预卜。

8 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

9 supplementary   

adj.补充的，附加的

参考例句：

• There is a supplementary water supply in case the rain supply fails.万一主水源断了，我们另外有供水的地方。
• A supplementary volume has been published containing the index.附有索引的增补卷已经出版。

10 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

11 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。