MALNUTRITION: North Korea: U.N. Team Finds High Level of Chronic Malnutrition

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: March 15, 2013

More than a fourth of all North Korean children are stunted from chronic malnutrition, and two-thirds of the country’s 24 million people do not know where their next meal is coming from, the United Nations said Friday. A team from the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, reporting from North Korea, found that 2.8 million North Koreans “are in need of regular food assistance amid worrying levels of chronic malnutrition and food insecurity.” It said 4 percent of North Korean children were acutely malnourished. With little arable land, harsh weather and chronic shortages of fuel and equipment, North Korea has struggled for decades to feed its people. The report said humanitarian aid should be neutral and impartial “and must not be contingent on political developments.

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