U.N. official calls for additional food aid for North Korea

Valerie Amos, head of the U.N. Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs, on Friday "plead[ed] with international donors to overlook political difficulties in the face of a humanitarian crisis" in North Korea, where she said it is estimated six million people are in danger of not getting enough to eat, Agence France-Presse reports.

She "said of the estimated US$210 million needed to confront dire food shortages in the communist state, only about 15 percent had been pledged," and added she had pledged an additional $7.2 million from the U.N. central emergency response fund, the news agency writes.

According to AFP, the House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to ban food aid to North Korea, "with lawmakers charging that the assistance would prop up the communist regime instead of feeding the hungry" (6/17).