North Korea’s severe food shortages are expected to worsen this year after a poor grain harvest in 2009.
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The unification ministry, which handles cross-border relations, said the communist state produced an estimated 4.11 million tons of grain last year, a five percent drop from 4.3 million tons in 2008.
Annual demand is 5.4 million tons, according to the state-run Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI) in Seoul.
The estimated shortfall of 1.29 million tons is equivalent to almost four months’ food supply this year, senior KREI analyst Kwon Tae-Jin told AFP.
Kwon, who helped analyse the grain production data, said the poor harvest was due to bad weather and a lack of fertiliser in the nation of 24 million people.
The South has suspended annual shipments of fertiliser and food to the North since 2008, while the North has relied on outside humanitarian aid to help feed its people since the mass famine in 1990s which killed hundreds of thousands.
Despite the chronic hunger, the North in March last year refused further US food aid as relations worsened over Pyongyang’s planned ballistic missile launch.
A shock currency revaluation last November 30 has reportedly played havoc with distribution networks, aggravating food shortages and sparking inflation.
I did not know about this stituation in north
I think we all should realize that these people need help and we should give what they need
we all have money and power why not put some of it for donation
that’s interesting