Cheng Da taking food to North Korea

The Cheng Da was taking desperately needed food aid to North Korea. 'It is quite devastating,' Trevor Page, director of the World Food Programme's Pyongyang office, said. 'I had just negotiated the distribution plan today after three rounds of discussions.

The director of the food ministry was so happy the ship was coming and said, 'Please speed up delivery of the third (next) ship because we are extremely short of food at this time.' ' It was a devastating blow for a country where millions of people were going hungry after a disastrous harvest. Mr Page said the rice on the Cheng Da was to have fed some 726,000 people for 30 days.