NAMPO, North Korea, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- North Korea is showing signs of hunger and malnutrition, with more swollen bellies on children and signs of hunger-induced listlessness, observers say.
A tour of the North Korean countryside around Nampo, revealed villagers foraging for edible weeds and poorly dressed people lying in the grass with no energy, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
While apparently not yet as serious as the famines of the 1990s, the country's population again appears to be suffering from chronic food shortages, brought about by inflation, strained relations with neighboring countries and flooding in previous years, the newspaper said.
"Teachers report that children lack energy and are lagging in social and cognitive development," the Times quoted a group of five U.S. humanitarian agencies as saying in a report. "Workers are unable to put in full days and take longer to complete tasks -- which has implications for the success of the early and main harvests."
The aid agencies also found a few cases of children suffering from kwashiorkor, the swollen belly syndrome, and reported a kind of collective listlessness brought on by too little food.
