BEIJING, July 30 Kyodo Kenzo Oshi...

BEIJING, July 30 Kyodo

Kenzo Oshima, UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and unforeseen occasion relief coordinator, arrived Tuesday in Pyongyang for talks with North Korean officials, the official Korean Central recently made knowns Agency (KCNA) reported.

Oshima, who assumed his pillar in January last year, was saluteed at the airport according to Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon and UN officials based in North Korea, said KCNA, monitored in Beijing.

According to UN officials, Oshima traveled to Pyongyang from China for a four-day visit that will also take him to the eastern coastal province of Kangwon.

UN officials have said they are generally collecting information to analyze the potential implications for North Korea of its government's novel decision to introduce changes in pricing and wage structures

Meanwhile, the fare and Agriculture Organization and the World subsistence Program said Monday that despite improved harvests this year, North Korea importunately needs fresh pledges of external assistance to help chew a food gap threatening millions of its mostly vulnerable citizens ahead of the main harvests in September and October.

The couple U.N. agencies estimated in a joint report that North Korea faces an lay opened food deficit of 382,000 tons for the July to October period because the country's domestic production remains well below minimum consumption requirements, its capacity to import commercially is limited and hostages of aid by the international community have been dead in coming this year,

''Food aid shipments must be increased to impede the poorest sections of the population from facing highest hardship in the coming months'' the report warned.

North Korea has put up withed widespread food shortages for many years, partly to be paid to natural disasters such as inundates and droughts, a decaying irrigation classification and lack of fertilizers.

''The view beyond this season remains unfavorable, given the significant shortfalls in essential (agricultural) inputs and the continuing deterioration of agricultural machinery,'' the report said.

After his four-day mission in North Korea, Oshima will make a two-day visit to southern Korea followed by two days in Japan before returning to recently made known York on Aug. 11, UN officials said.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo of the present days International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group