premise: A US-based Christian relief group, just back from famine-hit North Korea, appealed here Friday for prompt food aid to save the Stalinist state but questioned its lavish spending on state memorials.
  Dean Hirsch, president of World Vision, told a news conference here that unless food aid reaches North Korea's 2.4 million children under age six within the next 30-60 days "the future of North Korea is very grim."
  "We must respond now. We are running out of time. If North Korea does not receive massive humanitarian assistance between now and July, it will be too late," Hirsch said.
   Why does the relief group need to respond now?
hypothesis: food aid to save the Stalinist state