UN: North Korea facing worst famine in a decade

PARTS of North Korea are experiencing their worst levels of hunger in nearly a decade, the UN World Food Programme said yesterday as it called on donors to provide urgent assistance over the next few months.

Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the WFP’s country director for North Korea, said a food security assessment conducted last month showed that parts of the country could fall into a humanitarian emergency ahead of the autumn harvest.

Millions of people are facing the worst hunger seen since the late 1990s, when famine killed an estimated one million people, de Margerie said. The crisis is especially severe in the north-east.