ICC Note:

A UN report on North Korea says that 41% of the country is undernourished and that one out of 5 do not have access to clean water. The report says that 18 million are depending on the governments inadequate rations 10.5 million are undernourished. The country is also susceptible and unprepared for natural disasters. North Korea is considered to the world’s worst persecutor of Christians according to Open Doors USA. The government has become more closed to aid and clamped down harder than ever on Christianity in the country with an estimated 25,000 to 75,000 currently in their prisons.

3/23/2017 North Korea (UN OCHA) – Chronic food insecurity, early childhood malnutrition and nutrition insecurity are widespread in DPRK. According to the 2016 Global Hunger Index (GHI), published by the International Food Policy Research Institute, Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, which measures and tracks hunger worldwide, DPRK has a score of 28.6, classified as ‘serious’ and ranks 98th out of 118 countries. Furthermore, 10.5 million people, or 41 per cent of the total population, are undernourished. However, there has been steady improvement since 2000, in part as a result of humanitarian assistance.

There are many complex, intertwined reasons for the high rates of undernutrition in DPRK, including challenges in producing sufficient food. The majority of the country is mountainous, only 17 per cent of land is good for cultivation. Agriculture also remains dependent on traditional farming methods. Food production is hampered by a lack of agricultural inputs, such as quality seeds, proper fertilizer and equipment. In addition, changing weather patterns have left DPRK vulnerable to droughts and floods, which have affected agricultural production. While official Government harvest data for 2016 has not yet been released, FAO estimates that rice production in 2016 increased by 23 per cent compared to the previous year when there was drought, but remains below the previous three-year average.

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