UN: 11 million North Koreans need food and kids are stunted

A UN report says that an estimated 11 million people in North Korea — over 43 percent of the population — are undernourished and that "chronic food insecurity and malnutrition is widespread."

An estimated 11 million people in North Korea — over 43 percent of the population — are undernourished and “chronic food insecurity and malnutrition is widespread,” according to a UN report issued Wednesday.

The report by Tapan Mishra, the head of the UN office in North Korea, said that “widespread undernutrition threatens an entire generation of children, with one in five children stunted due to chronic undernutrition.”

With only limited health care and a lack of access to clean water and sanitation, “children are also at risk of dying from curable diseases,” the report added.

Mishra said that last year’s UN appeal for $111 million to help 6 million of North Korea’s most vulnerable people was only 24 percent funded, one of the lowest levels in the world.

1m 10s

North Koreans read about Trump-Kim summit

North Koreans on the streets of Pyongyang read newspaper reports about Kim Jong Un's trip to meet US President Donald Trump for a second summit.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday that the U.N. humanitarian team in the country is calling for $120 million “to urgently provide life-saving aid to 3.8 million people.” Without adequate funding this year, some agencies providing desperately needed help to North Koreans will be forced to close down, he said.

Dujarric said North Korea’s government asked last month for help from international humanitarian groups to combat food shortages. He said food production figures provided by North Korea showed “there is a food gap of about 1.4 million tons expected for 2019, and that’s crops including rice, wheat, potato and soybeans.”