N Korea `on brink of disaster'

North Korea stands on the brink of an "enormous human disaster", according to a delegation of Irish politicians which has just returned from the famine-stricken country.

More than 20 million North Koreans are on the brink of starvation, according to the Democratic Left TD, Mr Eamon Gilmore. He compared the scenes of emaciated people to pictures of concentration-camp victims or survivors of the Great Famine.

"What we saw was a famine in slow motion. With temperatures about to plummet to minus 40 Celsius and little coal or other energy sources in the country, it is hard to see how the most vulnerable people are going to survive," he said.

Labour's Ms Bernie Malone said the situation raised serious and difficult moral and political issues.

"The North Korean government is clearly not revealing the full story. We suspect that the situation is far worse than we were allowed to see," she said.

The government has blamed the food crisis on a series of natural disasters in recent years, including floods in 1995 and 1996 and a typhoon and tidal wave earlier this year.

However, Dr Joe Hendron of the SDLP said the government was not facing up to the "massive reality of its problems and could not blame everything on natural factors".

According to Mr Gilmore, the regime does not accept that its problems have anything to do with the way the economy is run. The dilemma for the international community was that more than 20 million people were facing a slow death and would not be saved from it by their leadership.

The three politicians and Mr Brian Hayes of Fine Gael spent a week in North Korea at the invitation of Trocaire, which has sent three shipments of aid to the country. An appeal by the agency has so far raised more than £1.5 million.

In a meeting with the vice-minister for foreign affairs, the politicians raised the issue of human rights abuses, as well as landmines and reports of public executions. The minister refused any concessions, according to Ms Malone.