N. Korea's food rations remain at 60% of U.N. recommendation: report

North Korea has been providing just 360 grams of daily food rations to each of its citizens in the second quarter of this year, far below the United Nations' recommendation, a media report said Thursday.

Citing the report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.S.-based media Voice of America said the daily ration is 12 percent less than last year during the same period which was 410 grams, and 10 grams less than the previous quarter’s 370 grams.

This is far less than the U.N.'s recommendation of 600 grams as well as the North Korean government's target of 573 grams.

According to the FAO's recent report on the North's food supply and demand for the grain in 2015-2016, the country's grain production in 2015 was 5.42 million tons, a 9 percent decrease from the previous year.

Aerial view on the combines and tractors working on the large wheat field. (123rf)

The report said North Korea's rice harvest dropped 26 percent to 1.95 million tons last year from a year earlier, while its corn harvest contracted 3 percent to 2.3 million tons during the same period.

FAO said that North Korea's food shortage this year will be 694,000 tons which has to be filled either by external assistance or by imports from other countries.

This is the isolated country's worst food shortage since 2011.

If North Korea manages to import some 300,000 tons of food this year, it will still face a shortage of 394,000 tons, VOA said. (Yonhap)