North Korean Food Shortage Seems To Be Getting Worse: S.Korea Reports

(CTN NEWS) – SEOUL – South Korea stated on Wednesday that the situation with the North Korean food crisis appeared to have become worse as a newspaper claimed that North Korea had decreased military rations for the first time in more than 20 years.

According to the South Korean unification ministry, North Korea has effectively admitted the country’s severe food shortages after state media reported on plans for an “urgent” ruling party conference on agriculture this month.

The South’s unification ministry, which manages contacts with North Korea, released a statement saying that “its food situation looks to have deteriorated.”

Since the 1990s, North Korea has experienced severe food shortages, including famine, frequently due to natural calamities like floods that ruined the harvest.

The remote nation is subject to tight international sanctions because of its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs, and in recent years, self-imposed lockdowns designed to stop COVID-19 have all but eliminated its meager border trade.

Citing an unnamed senior South Korean official, the DongA Ilbo newspaper in South Korea said on Wednesday that North Korea had decreased the daily food rations provided to its military for the first time since 2000.

The unification ministry stated that although it and other agencies were keeping an eye on the situation, it could not authenticate some parts of the media report.

According to a report from North Korea’s state news agency KCNA on February 6.

The Workers’ Party of Korea has scheduled a meeting of the party’s Central Committee for late February to address the “very important and urgent task of establishing the correct strategy for the development of agriculture.”

It was unusual for North Korea to schedule a conference of this nature, according to the South’s unification ministry.

According to a report released last month by the American monitoring organization 38 North, North Korea’s “food availability has likely gone below the basic minimum about human needs,” with food insecurity at an all-time high.

Kwon Young-se, South Korea’s Minister of Unification, suggested that recent North Korean media claims about leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter attending state events could be intended to promote unification.

And strengthen allegiance to the ruling family amid escalating humanitarian crises.

Kwon informed lawmakers that “North Korea’s food situation doesn’t seem particularly good.” Although it doesn’t yet appear that a large number of people are starving to death, there are a lot of signals that something is wrong.

According to Kwon, North Korea requested assistance from the World Food Programme, but negotiations stalled due to disagreements over how supplies would be monitored.

An email requesting comment from the WFP, which has assisted North Korea over the years, did not receive a prompt response.

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