North Korea's Food Crisis Has 'Deteriorated,' Says South Korea: But 'Doesn't Yet Look Like…People (Are) Starving To Death'

South Korea on Wednesday said North Korea's food crisis appears to have deteriorated further. 

What Happened: South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Kim Jong Un's isolated nation has effectively acknowledged severe food shortages in the country, pointing to a state media report this month about plans for an “urgent” ruling party meeting on agriculture, reported Reuters. 

“Its food situation seems to have deteriorated,” the unification ministry said in a statement.

See Also: Kim Jong Un Builds Ice Cream Factory For ‘Welfare’ Of North Korean People Amid Food Shortage, Global Sanctions

“North Korea’s food situation doesn’t seem very good,” South Korea’s Unification Minister Kwon Young Se told the parliament.

 “We’re seeing a number of signs…though it doesn’t yet look like there’s a stream of people starving to death.”

The comments from the unification ministry come after South Korea’s DongA Ilbo newspaper on Wednesday reported that the Asian nation had reduced daily food rations to its soldiers for the first time in more than two decades.

Although the South Korean ministry said, it could not confirm details of the media report, it is monitoring the situation with other agencies. 

North Korea’s state-owned media, Korean Central News Agency, on Feb. 6, reported that the Workers’ Party of Korea had called a meeting of the party’s Central Committee later this month for the “very important and urgent task to establish the correct strategy for the development of agriculture.”

Photo: Courtesy of Melissa Askew on Unsplash

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