Victims of starvation in a Korean orphanage

Severely malnourished children sit on the floor of an orphanage in Huichon, in famine-stricken North Korea

Severely malnourished children sit on the floor of an orphanage in Huichon, in famine-stricken North Korea. Aid workers with Trocaire who have just returned from the country say it has less food than Ethiopia had during its famine. Ms Niamh O'Carroll, of Trocaire, became the first westerner to be shown the damage wreaked by Typhoon Winnie on North Korea's remaining farmland last week. The typhoon smashed miles of sea-walls, covering thousands of acres of farmland with salt water.

"The rice paddies are under a couple of metres of sea water, and the husks are all empty. All the people's houses were swept away, and their livelihood destroyed. We were told it would take four years for the soil to recover," said Ms O'Carroll, speaking in Dublin yesterday.