North Korea food production ‘lowest for a decade’: UN

North Korea recorded its worst harvest for more than a decade last year, the United Nations said yesterday, as natural disasters combined with its lack of arable land and inefficient agriculture to hit production. The isolated North, which is under several sets of sanctions over its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programmes, has long struggled to feed itself and suffers chronic food shortages.

But last year’s harvest was just 4.95 million tonnes, the United Nations said in its Needs and Priorities assessment for 2019, down by 500,000 tonnes. It was “the lowest production in more than a decade”, the UN’s Resident Coordinator in the North Tapan Mishra said in a statement. “This has resulted in a significant food gap.”

As a result 10.9 million people in the North needed humanitarian assistance -- 600,000 more than last year -- with a potential for increased malnutrition and illness. It is equivalent to 43 per cent of the population.