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North Korea's Quiet Hunger

First came the floods of 1995 and '96, washing away crops and hopes. Then came a drought, then a typhoon. The rice fields, normally so plentiful in North Korea, were ruined. North Korea's people were hungry.

No one is quite sure when the hunger began or how many of the country's 22 million people have died from it. North Korea's strict government controls the distribution of news. At first, North Korean officials did not want the world to know of their country's deep troubles, some of which were caused by the government's own economic mistakes.

But with the harvest poor again this year, hungry North Korea has finally begun to welcome outside aid. The U.S. has given the nation nearly 195,000 tons of grain so far this year. Last Saturday seven U.S. officials were allowed to visit to see what more they can do to help.

Before the U.S. donates more food, though, officials want to be allowed to track the donations to be sure they go to the hungriest.

"International food aid is getting through," says U.S. Representative Tony Hall from Ohio, who recently returned from his third visit. "But people in the countryside continue to teeter on the brink of massive disaster."

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