PYONGYANG, North Korea, July 31 (UPI) -- North Korea may be facing its worst food shortages in decades, an official with the World Food Program predicted.
Jean-Pierre de Margerie, North Korea director for the WFP, told a news conference that floods and consequent poor harvests of last year have created an urgent need for 10 million pounds of food supplies, on top of international humanitarian aid already received.
"Millions of vulnerable North Koreans are at risk of slipping toward precarious hunger levels," he said. "We are running against the clock here."
The North Korean government's recent experiments with reforms to the state food supply system and subsequent reimposition of central control of the rice supply may not have helped. The price of rice is nearly three times what it was a year ago, The Daily Telegraph of London reported Thursday.
