North Korea is facing a food shortage of about 860,000 tonnes this year, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) forecast in a report on Monday, saying that the country could experience a “harsh lean period” as early as next month.
The impoverished country, which is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, has long struggled to feed itself, experiencing chronic food shortages.
Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a series of summer storms and floods added yet more pressure on the flagging economy.
Photo: Reuters
Pyongyang last month said it was tackling a “current food crisis.”
North Korea is projected to produce a “near-average level” of 5.6 million tonnes of grain this year, the FAO said.
That is about 1.1 million tonnes short of the amount needed to feed its entire population, it said, adding that with “commercial imports officially planned at 205,000 tonnes,” North Korea will likely face a food shortage of about 860,000 tonnes.
“If this gap is not adequately covered through commercial imports and/or food aid, households could experience a harsh lean period from August to October,” the FAO said.
However, Pyongyang in January last year shut its borders to protect itself against the pandemic, and as a result trade with Beijing — its economic lifeline — has slowed to a trickle while all international aid workers have left the country.
A series of typhoons in summer last year triggered floods that destroyed thousands of homes and inundated farmland.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made rare references to the hardship over the past few months, saying that the food situation was getting “tense” and warning people to prepare for the “worst-ever situation.”
North Korea had a nationwide famine in the 1990s, which killed hundreds of thousands of people after the fall of the Soviet Union left it without crucial support.
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