DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA - REPUBLIQUE POP. DEMOCRATIQUE DE COREE - REPUBLICA POP. DEMOCRATICA DE COREA

His Excellency Kong Jin Thae, Deputy Prime Minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Allow me, first of all, on behalf of the Delegation of the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, to offer my congratulations to you, Mr. Romano Prodi on your election to the Chairmanship of the World Food Summit.

I wish to express my thanks to the Director-General of FAO and members of the Secretariat for their initiative in organizing this Summit and their great endeavours for its success. My appreciation also goes to the Italian Government for its efforts devoted to the successful convening of this Summit.

Today, when global food problems become more serious due to various factors, it is of great significance that Heads of State and Government of countries throughout the world sit down together and try and find mutual solutions.

Before its liberation in 1945, our country was a food-deficient and famine-stricken backward colonial agricultural state.

Under the wise leadership of President Kim II Sung, the fatherly leader of our people, and the great leader Comrade Kim Jon II, the irrigation and electrification of agriculture were successfully completed and the mechanization of agriculture and the use of chemicals have been promoted.

As a result, grain output increased from 1.89 million tons in 1946, the first year after liberation to 10 million tons in the late 1980s. This resulted in the achievement of self-sufficiency in food, even though agricultural land is very limited, 80 percent of the territory being mountainous.

Despite this lack of agricultural land, under the wise leadership of the great leader, Comrade Kim Jong II, our people are now making dynamic efforts to increase food production through intensive farming, reclamation of tideland and improvement in the fertility of land, and by taking practical measures to optimize the utilization of natural grasslands for the development of livestock breeding.

Along with these efforts, state investment has been increased and the nationwide social movement strengthened for the purpose of land management and environmental protection, such as tree planting and the rehabilitation of rivers and lakes.

Agriculture is most vulnerable to climate changes and natural disasters. Unexpectedly heavy rains and droughts which have afflicted many parts of the world in recent years, have greatly impeded agricultural development. Even in our country, several natural disasters in recent years, have severely damaged various sectors of the national economy which our people had built up through their strenuous efforts over the past several decades. In particular, causing the loss of ripened crops and foodstocks. Therefore, a food problem inevitably occurred in our country.

The abrupt hailstorm of September 1994, in the major agricultural areas, and the flood of August 1995 unprecedented in the last one hundred years, caused total damage of US$ 150 billion in the country. Worse still, this summer torrential rains again fell suddenly in many parts of the country, including the main major grain production areas, with the result that infrastructure and dwelling houses were destroyed, many hectares of paddy and non-paddy fields were buried or washed away, thus causing an adverse impact on this year's grain production.

The afflicted areas are now being rehabilitated and reconstructed within the shortest possible period and the livelihoods of the flood victims stabilized thanks to the popular policies and urgent rehabilitation measures of the Government of our Republic and the strenuous efforts of our people.

Whether or not we tide over the temporary difficulties created by these natural disasters, depends wholly upon the efforts of ourselves, the masters, and from humanitarian assistance from the international community which gives us encouragement to our people in their efforts to eliminate the aftermath of these calamities.

Governments of different countries of the world, governmental, non-governmental and international organizations, such as the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, and other public organizations, have been providing relief material including food with a noble humanitarian spirit, expressing sympathy and consolation to our people with regard to the severe natural damage which was suffered in our country.

On behalf of the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep thanks to governments of different countries of the world, international organizations, public organizations and individual people, for providing generous humanitarian assistance to our people in the flood-afflicted areas.

Today international concern over food and agriculture is ever-growing and continued efforts have been made to improve the present world food situation.

Nevertheless, the global food crisis still exists, and this inflicts immeasurable suffering and misfortune upon humankind. This is manifested by the fact that more than 800 million people in developing countries still remain chronically undernourished and around 11 million children under the age of five die annually of famine and malnutrition world-wide.

On behalf of the Delegation of the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, I express our support to the Rome Declaration and Plan of Action of the World Food Summit. We consider it important for the attainment of food security that individual governments and peoples, the masters of their countries, draw up agricultural policies benefitting their own specific conditions and achieve self-sufficiency in food by developing agriculture through the optimum utilization of the available human, material and natural resources.

Top priority should also be given to minimizing the risks associated with climate change, eradication of pests and diseases, and improvement and development of infrastructure which will lead to the removal of the causes of food insecurity and environmental destruction. Resolute measures should be taken simultaneously to prevent desertification, deforestation and over-exploitation of marine and freshwater resources which have now reached global dimensions.

It is equally important to strengthen international and regional cooperation to minimize the negative impact of natural disasters that have repeatedly occurred in recent years.

As clarified in Commitment Three of the draft Plan of Action, the priority issue for the victims of natural disasters is to take measures to provide food assistance to them at national and international levels.

In this context, it is of particular importance to take measures to prevent any attempt to use humanitarian assistance as the means of political pressure.

We would like to express our appreciation to various governmental, non-governmental and international organizations, including the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization for their efforts and activities to alleviate famine and poverty in the world which focus on agricultural development and increased food production in developing countries.

In conclusion, I am convinced that the current Summit will represent the epochal turning point in the achievement of world food security by successfully deliberating all agenda items which are on the table.