UN projects North Korea's food situation to worsen this year

Employees harvest grain at the Koh Chang cooperative farm near Pyongyang, Oct. 17, 2019. The farm has over 1.500 employees, and supplies agricultural products to the Chollima Steel Complex, one of North Korea's largest steel plants, as well as Pyongyang's grocery stores. TASS-Yonhap

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) forecast North Korea's food situation will worsen in the fourth quarter due to Typhoon Lingling and the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak there, a U.S. broadcaster reported Saturday.

Citing the FAO's Early Warning Early Action report on food security and agriculture released Thursday, the Voice of America said North Korea is among nine high-risk countries that face further food shortages in the October to December period.

The FAO picked drought, natural disasters such as the typhoon, and ASF as the main factors that will worsen the North's food problems.

The UN agency called on the international community to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea as the regime's agricultural production fell to a five-year low this year.

In May, North Korea reported its first ASF outbreak at a farm near its border with China to the World Organization for Animal Health. (Yonhap)

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