PYONGYANG, North Korea – Millions of
North Korean children are not getting the food, medicine or health care
they need to develop physically or mentally, leaving many stunted and
malnourished, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Nearly
a third of children under age 5 show signs of stunting, particularly in
rural areas where food is scarce, and chronic diarrhea due to a lack of
clean water, sanitation and electricity has become the leading cause of
death among children, the agency said. Hospitals are spotless but bare;
few have running water or power, and drugs and medicine are in short
supply, the agency said in a detailed update on the humanitarian
situation in North Korea.

"I've seen babies ... who
should have been sitting up who were not sitting up, and can hardly hold
a baby bottle," Jerome Sauvage, the U.N.'s Pyongyang-based resident
coordinator for North Korea, said in Beijing before presenting the
report to donors.

The report paints a horrific
picture of deprivation in the countryside, not often seen by outsiders,
who are usually not allowed to travel beyond the relatively prosperous
Pyongyang, where cherubic children are hand-picked to attend government
celebrations and a middle-class with a taste for good food have the
means to eat out.

Sauvage's report provides not only
further evidence of North Korea's inability to feed its people, but
also bolsters critics who say the government should be spending on food
security instead of building up its military, testing rockets and
pursuing a nuclear program denounced by the U.N., the United States and
South Korea.

The United Nations called for $198 million in donations for 2012 — mostly to help feed the hungry.
The
appeal comes at a delicate time for North Korea, which has sought to
project an image of stability and unity during the transition to power
of the new, young leader, Kim Jong Un.

Yet the government has begun to publicly acknowledge a severe shortage of food for the first time in years.

In
late May, in an unusual admission of a food problem by a high-ranking
official, North Korea's premier, Choe Yong Rim, urged farmers to do
their part in alleviating the food shortage, according to the state-run
Korean Central News Agency.

Worries of another
drought have also been raised by a reported shortfall of rain this
spring in some areas, which will likely lead to reduced harvest in the
fall. The apparent effects of the drought were witnessed by The
Associated Press in May in South Phyongan province.

"I
have been working at the farm for more than 30 years, but I have never
experienced this kind of severe drought," An Song Min, a farmer at the
Tokhae Cooperative Farm in the Nampho area, told the AP as he stood in
parched fields where the dirt crumbled through his fingers.

North
Korea does not produce enough food to feed its 24 million people, and
relies on limited purchases of food as well as outside donations to make
up the shortfall. North Korea also suffered a famine in the mid- and
late-1990s, the FAO and World Food Program said in a special report late
last year.

About 16 million North Koreans —
two-thirds of the country — depend on twice-a-month government
rations, the U.N. report said. And there are no signs the government
will undertake the long-term structural reforms needed to spur economic
growth, it said.

Rations usually consist of barley,
maize or rice, if they're lucky, while many children are growing up
without eating any protein, Sauvage said. He said malnutrition over a
generation can have a severe affect on physical growth, cognitive
capacity and the ability to learn.

NEW YORK – The controversial
elementary school principal that nixed a patriotic anthem in favor of a
Justin Bieber song at kindergarten graduation ceremony has decided to
not allow the pop star's ballad either, The New York Post reports.

New York City Mayor Bloomberg along with Schools Chancellor Dennis
Walcott announced at a Monday press conference that PS 90 in Brooklyn
will no longer sing Justin Bieber's "Baby" at the school’s June 20
kindergarten graduation ceremony.

School Principal Greta Hawkins raised outrage after The New York Post
reported Sunday that she had decided Lee Greenwood’s patriotic “God
Bless the USA," was inappropriate for the ceremony, but was allowing the
pop star's flirty song about teenage romance.

However, Walcott says Hawkins has decided not to allow the Bieber
song either, though he says no city officials pressured her to do so.

“Now as far as Justin Bieber, I understand some of the issues people
raised," he said, according to The New York Post. "It’s my understanding
that song will not be part of the ‘moving up’ ceremony as well . . . I
support our principals along that line.

However, the officials made no indication Hawkins planned on
reinstating the Greenblatt song, which Hawkins nixed because she
reportedly "did not want to offend other cultures."

Her decision raised outrage among both local lawmakers and parents, including Congressman Michael G. Grimm (R,C-S.I/Brooklyn).

“I am outraged that NYC’s Department of Education is standing by the
decision of PS 90’s principal to pull the song ‘Proud to be an American’
from the upcoming kindergarten ceremony, for fear of offending other
cultures," he said in a statement. “The only thing offensive about any
of this is the anti-American message being engrained in our youth. We
all should be proud to be American and we should never ever apologize
for it!"

Some parents have started a Facebook petition to get the song reinstated at the ceremony.

“A lot of people fought to move to America to live freely, so that
song should be sung with a whole lot of pride,” parent Luz Lozada told
The New York Post.Click for more from The New York Post

EFN Twitter

About Us

JMC Ministries is the founder of Eternal Flame News. We report the hot topics that effect Christians today in their daily walk with Christ. So we can inform them of what is happening in our world today and how we can make a difference to change the path our world is on.

The truth and word of God is like a consuming fire. It consumes all the lies the world tries to feed us and tears us down. With this truth we can destroy those lies and consume them with the Fire of the Holy Spirit.