NK Food Shortage

[Anchor Lead]

A United Nations agency reported that North Korea's food shortage is growing rather serious this year. The North Koreans are known to stave off starvation by smuggling in low-quality rice for animal feed or farming in secret.

[Pkg]

This image of a North Korean rural village was shot last month. A farmer uses a bucket to water the rice seedlings on a parched field. The situation has grown worse for this year's spring season when food becomes particularly scarce. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations projected that North Korea would suffer a food shortage of 700,000 tons this year. North Koreans' daily rice rations in the second quarter of this year amounted to just 360 grams a day, only 60% of the minimum recommended amount and 12% less than last year.

[Soundbite] Kim Kwan-ho(Researcher, Rural Research Inst.) : "2015 was considered the worst drought in 100 years even in North Korea, which may have cut down on farming output."

The deficiency is partially made up for with stale rice for animal feed and flour smuggled in from China, but the problem remains that the quality of these foods is extremely poor. North Koreans are also reported to be surviving the famine for the time being by selling farm produce grown in their private yards at marketplaces. Unless North Korea gives up on its collective farming system and rigid planned production, its residents appear unlikely to escape from chronic food shortages and the threat of famine.