KOREA, DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF* (4 May)
Harvesting of the 2003/04 winter wheat crop commences in June, same as spring barley and early potatoes. The area for this crop planted in September-October 2003 is estimated at 69 000 hectares compared to 58 000 hectares in the previous year. Winter wheat output is provisionally estimated at 161 000 tonnes, against 145 000 tonnes in 2002/03. One factor for this increase is the expanded Double Cropping Programme, with the support of FAO which provided a total of 5 894 tonnes of fertilizer (urea), with some 3 870 tonnes more yet to arrive.
Paddy was planted in nurseries at the end of March and beginning of April and will be transplanted from late May into June. There were big consignments of fertiliser: 200 000 tonnes from South Korea and 47 000 tonnes from the EU.
With the recent arrival of maize and wheat, all but 600 000 core beneficiaries received their WFP cereal rations in April. Cereal allocations for FFW projects during the spring season have had to be reduced from a planned 32 000 to 8 300 tonnes. New pledges of about 123 000 tonnes of mixed commodities (mostly cereals) are urgently required to cover needs over the next six months.
On Thursday 22 April a train explosion at a railway station in Ryongchon (North Pyongan province) near the Chinese border killed 161 people and caused extensive damage to property.