North Korea suf­fered a dev­as­tat­ing famine in the mid-1990’s. Ever since that time, the coun­try has depended on for­eign aid to feed it’s peo­ple. That aid has stopped since North Korea’s began test­ing of nuclear weapons.

Now, the UN’s World Food Pro­gramme says the hunger and mal­nu­tri­tion are at dan­ger­ous lev­els, and they them­selves are unable to feed everyone.

From this Gru­a­dian arti­cle, Tania Brani­gan tells us more about the WFP’s statement.

The UN aid agency said it was reach­ing fewer than a third of those tar­geted and about a fifth of those in need.

It blamed a lack of inter­na­tional dona­tions, with none since the state’s nuclear test in May, and said it faced new restric­tions from Pyongyang. It said it had received 15% of the $504m it needed.

Tor­ben Due, the WFP’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive for North Korea, told reporters in Bei­jing that since Jan­u­ary it had been deliv­er­ing reduced food pack­ages and reach­ing 1.7 mil­lion peo­ple. “It is amongst the low­est [num­ber] we’re ever had in the DPRK [North Korea],” he said.

The agency esti­mates that 8.7 mil­lion peo­ple need food aid, and the emer­gency oper­a­tion launched last autumn aimed to reach 6.2 mil­lion. It has been dis­trib­ut­ing a tenth of the 40,000 met­ric tonnes it aimed to deliver each month.

“There’s a need to do more, and that’s why we are ask­ing these donor coun­tries for more,” Due said.

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