Page 11 - aruba-today-20180512

A11
WORLD NEWS Saturday 12 May 2018

AP Interview: Food agency head hopes talks help N. Koreans

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN North’s nuclear weapons
Associated Press and ballistic missile pro-
BEIJING (AP) — A peace grams, the country’s food
agreement with North Ko- situation would improve fur-
rea will go far toward easing ther. “If we can put these
the impoverished nation’s nuclearization and political
chronic food security woes, issues behind us, I believe
the head of the United Na- that the world can come
tions’ World Food Program together and the citizens
said Friday, a month before and people of (North Ko-
President Donald Trump is rea) will have a brighter
scheduled to meet with future,” Beasley said. “If a
North Korean leader Kim deal can be reached and
Jong Un for a historic sum- the sanctions can be lifted,
mit in Singapore. I believe the opportunities
Fresh from a four-day visit to are great.”
the North, Executive Direc- Washington hopes the sum-
tor David Beasley also told mit will lead to the North
The Associated Press that abandoning its nuclear
he detected a “certain de- weapons program, some-
gree of euphoria” among thing Kim has said he would
the North Koreans he met consider if he was provided
and a feeling of momen- with security assurances. In this May 9, 2018 photo provided by the World Food Program (WFP), WFP Executive Director David
tum toward a better future. Though an agreement re- Beasley stands with children at a nursery and kindergarten where WFP provides food assistance in
“This is a very important mains elusive, the simple Sinwon county in North Korea’s South Hwanghae province.
time in world history and fact that the leaders of the Associated Press
let’s all hope that we can long-time adversaries plan added hardship of being the Chinese border in order tant trading partners and
move forward and put this to meet has given rise to mostly mountainous, forc- to better view conditions in allies.
page in history completely hopes for a turning point ing its citizens to cultivate the countryside. A study by the U.S. Census
behind us,” he said in an in- in tensions on the Korean every scrap of arable land, Floods and droughts were Bureau in 2011 estimated
terview in China’s capital, Peninsula. Beasley said. North Korean contributing factors in the the number of deaths be-
Beijing. Around 10 million of North agriculture is also charac- disastrous famines in the tween 1993 and 2000 at
The former South Carolina Korea’s 25 million people terized by a near-total reli- 1990s that nearly brought around half a million, al-
governor said a positive have humanitarian needs, ance on human and ani- North Korea to economic though other estimates
outcome to talks with the and problems such as mal- mal labor and a lack of fer- ruin, heightened by much ranged much higher.
U.S. and others would re- nutrition, anemia, under- tilizers and other inputs. broader economic and Beasley said there have
assure donors that aid was nutrition and stunting are “I’ve never seen more peo- political difficulties related been vast improvements
reaching those who need- severe, Beasley said. While ple work so hard in my life,” to the collapse of the So- since then, though poor
ed it most. And if it leads to such woes are common in said Beasley, who departed viet Union and its satellites, rains last season limited the
the lifting of U.N. economic other food-insecure coun- North Korea via a six-hour which had been some of amount of food available
sanctions imposed over the tries, North Korea faces the drive over bumpy roads to North Korea’s most impor- this year.q
EU warns Montenegro after

journalist is shot, wounded

By PREDRAG MILIC bloc’s enlargement, spoke the European Union.”
Associated Press after meeting with Olivera “This is something that is not
PODGORICA, Montenegro Lakic, a crime and corrup- acceptable to us,” Hahn
(AP) — A senior European tion reporter for the Vijesti said.
Union official warned Mon- daily who was shot and “This is a negative track
tenegro on Friday that its wounded Tuesday outside record. I am looking for a
bid to join the bloc will be her home in the capital, positive track record.”
hampered unless the Bal- Podgorica. After meeting with Hahn
kan country curbs attacks Hahn described the attack later Friday, Montenegrin
on journalists. on Lakic as “clearly an at- Prime Minister Dusko Mar-
In this file photo dated July 20, 2012, Monenegro’s prominent Johannes Hahn, the com- tack on media freedom, kovic said his government
crime reporter Olivera Lakic accompanied with her husband missioner responsible for on freedom of expression, won’t tolerate attacks on
walks on a street in Podgorica. matters relating to the one of the core values of the press.q
Associated Press