North Korea will need food aid in the upcoming year, warning about rising levels of malnutrition among young childreYesterday it was "sea of fire," today it's "starving children."
"Nearly three million people will continue to require food assistance in 2012," AFP quoted a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP) as saying on Friday.
"Hospital staff told the assessment mission of a significant increase in malnutrition among young children," the Rome-based agencies said after a visit to the East Asian nation.
The report cited officials in a number of pediatric wards, who indicated a 100 percent increase in the number of cases admitted for malnutrition since April, in comparison with the same period in 2010.
The report estimated North Korea's harvest this year to be around 8.5 percent higher than 2010 but warned that domestic production and food imports were not sufficient to meet the needs.
"There remains an uncovered cereal deficit of 414,000 tons," it said.
FAO and WFP called on North Korea to turn to more mechanized and more efficient forms of farming in order to increase productivity, which remains way short of catching up with that of neighboring South.
Kisan Gunjal, an economist at FAO, said paddy yields at 4.3 tons per hectare in North Korea are about 60 percent of those in neighboring South Korea.
"This productivity gap represents a potential for the North to increase its farm output and eliminate chronic food shortages by adopting appropriate technology, inputs and measures," Gunjal said.