A NORTH KOREAN GIRL SUFFERING FROM MALNUTRITION IN PURYONG CITY, 1999-05-19 (photo)

A North Korean girl suffering from severe malnutrition struggles to sit upright on her hospital bed in Puryong city, an industrial town located near the Chinese border, May 7. The girl, aged 14, but looking hardly older than 10, was too weak to speak. The hospital is relying on limited supplies of World Food Programe wheat after the country's public distribution system ran out of food on April 6 this year. Doctors said the girl suffered from such advanced stage of malnutrition, it was unlikely she would ever make a full recovery. Aid agencies say some of the worst affected areas are in the northeastern parts of the country, where recession-hit industrial cities surrounded by barren mountains have to sustain large populations on little arable land. ASW/CV/TAN