About 10.9 million (42.2%) of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) citizens suffered from malnutrition between 2018 and 2020. This is evidenced by data published on Tuesday, a report on the food situation in the world, compiled jointly by five UN agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP), TASS reports.
The latest figures show that the situation in DPRK has deteriorated compared to the period from 2004 to 2006, when 8.1 million people, or 33.8% of the population, suffered from malnutrition.
The report states that in DPRK at the end of 2020, due to chronic malnutrition, about 300,000, or 18.2% of children under the age of five, had developmental delays. This is less than the 26.1% figure recorded in 2012, but still higher compared to many other countries.
Currently, the states with a worse food situation than DPRK include only Somalia, where 59.5% of the population is malnourished, as well as CAR, Haiti, Yemen and Madagascar.
DPRK has been experiencing chronic food shortages for decades, but recently it has worsened even more against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic in the world, a series of natural disasters and the country's de facto closure of its borders. In June, the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, acknowledged the existence of this problem, pointing out the need to solve it.
