this time pyongyang reached out to five private western humanitarian groups. five sent representatives last month to assess conditions in three central north korean provinces. north and south pyonggong. for more what we are found we are joined by david austin, he lead the delegation. and welcome mr. austin, thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. tell us first of all, what did the north koreans say in explaining why they wanted you to come? >> they asked us to come because there is a food shortage and it's affecting really the most vulnerable population in their country. and they site a number-- cite a number of reasons for this. there was a lot of floods this past summer. and there was also a late cold in the springtime last year. the flooding in the summer. and then also this winter they've had more than 60 days of below freezing, really bitter freezing winter cold. >> warner: did they explain that they have lost a lot of their crops. >> they believe they have lost anywhere from 50 to 80% of their winter crops which is what they use to really feed

pyongyang, iraq, sharif. yes, and you need to come back soon, whenever you can because i think it is exactly the type we are going to face. it cannot just be security. >> we have a couple questions specifically about the u.n. under relations to the u.s. army and u.n. staff can pair to those in the u.n. to those in the u.n. staff in afghanistan feel safe? [inaudible] -- taking over in several areas. how do you feel the impact the work of the u.n. is doing in those areas? what are your concerns and thoughts? >> if they had to accumulate the three points, i would focus on whether we in the u.n. feel it secure. the reality is that afghanistan is still a dangerous place and the reality is that the u.n. has been targeted and have had five skillet and several wounded and we had an attack relatively recently in their own operation. they didn't succeed. we were protected by the afghan forces. the afghan soldiers with the one who shot first, got wounded and then korona internal security was given enough time to respond