VOA标准英语2009年-World Food Program Reports Difficulties in

The United Nations World Food Program has to drastically cut the number of hungry North Koreans it feeds because of a lack of international funding and new restrictions¹ imposed by Pyongyang.

The World Food Program originally planned this year to reach more than six million hungry people in North Korea.
　
N. Korean children eat a lunch, including rice provided by the U.N. WFP, at a nursery in Yomju county, N. Korea (File)

WFP North Korea representative Torben Due said Wednesday that number has been cut by two-thirds, to less than two million. He referred to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"It's among the lowest [number] we've ever had in the DPRK," said Due.

Due says the main problem is that the WFP's emergency operation in North Korea does not have enough money. The program has received "very little funding" since October 2008. Of the $500 million needed, only 15 percent has been received so far.

He also says the North Korean government has placed new restrictions on the WFP's work. These new conditions include not being allowed to have Korean-speakers on the WFP staff, which has been sharply reduced to 16 people, from 59. There also is a requirement that the WFP give notice seven days in advance to visit a site, as opposed to the current 24-hour notice.

Due says most of the hungry people in North Korea now suffer from the effects of nearly two decades of food shortages. He says the problems of serious malnourishment affect children before they are even born, if their mothers are underfed.

"We are seeing the combined impact of a chronic² undernourishment of a very large part of the population and the impact of it is more dramatic than just a few weeks or months where you have too little to eat," said Due.

He says the WFP and the UN's Food and Agriculture organization did a joint³ survey last year that found a 8.7 million people in North Korea need food aid. This is more than a third of the country's total population of 23 million people.

North Korea has needed aid to feed its people for more than decade. Its state-controlled economy has contracted because of mismanagement and shortages of raw materials, while poor farming techniques and periodic floods have reduced harvests.

1 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

2 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

3 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。