Death rates higher in Wales.

12 A generation of malnourished North Korean children is at risk of sustaining lifelong physical impairment as disease and years of starvation take their toll, according to international relief workers in North Korea. The scale of the impending disaster was revealed in a study conducted by international aid agencies, which details the devastation wrought by more than five years of severe food shortages in North Korea and a near total breakdown in the public health system. Almost two thirds of North Korean children were found to be stunted or short for their age, and much of the population was subsisting on food rations mixed with straw and indigestible plant stalks, according to the report. The study is the first scientific nutritional survey conducted in North Korea in recent years, and it confirms reports that had been circulated by aid workers who, during the past year, have gained increased access to the population. James Foley, spokesman for the US State Department, said the situation outlined in the report substantiates the American government’s “profound and fundamental differences with North Korea . . . about its choices on how to allocate its resources.” The survey found that because of food shortages about 62% of children under 7 years old suffer from stunted growth and, despite huge international food aid programmes instituted in the past three years, severe malnutrition is still widespread among all children under the age of 7. The survey also found that 16% of all children under 7 were acutely malnourished and 59% were moderately or severely malnourished. The survey was carried out by joint teams of North Korean and international health officers from the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the European Union. The random sample nutritional survey was conducted by 18 research teams across North Korea that looked at a total of 1800 rural and urban children. Workers concluded in their report that the kind of malnutrition that they found left children with “irreparable mental and physical damage” which would not only leave a weakened generation in its wake but could hamper North Korea’s future economic prospects. Mr Foley said that although the international community had drastically increased the amount of food aid it is shipping to North Korea, government officials are unable to monitor the operations; the US government believes that some of the aid is not reaching its intended targets.