7 in 10 people undernourished in N. Korea

Nearly 70 percent of the North Korean population, roughly seven in 10 people, is undernourished, a US broadcaster reported Wednesday, citing a UN report on the need for humanitarian aid to North Korea.

According to the report released the previous day by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, some 18 million North Korean people, including 1.3 million children under five, are malnourished because of the socialist country's poor state food rations which lack protein and fat, Radio Free Asia said. 

Rehabilitation work is underway in the flood-devastated North Korean county of Onsong, North Hamkyong Province, in September 2016. This photo was captured from the North's Central TV Station. (Yonhap)

The report also pointed out that the North's daily food rations remained at 300-380 grams per person on average last year, just half of some 600 grams that the United Nations recommends as the minimal daily requirement, the broadcaster said.

The report stressed the need for fresh assistance to the North, while reminding that North Korean residents suffer insufficiency in food, sanitation and drinking water because of recurring natural disasters like droughts and floods.

Citing the UN relief agency, another US broadcaster, Voice of America, also said on the same day that some $114 million is required to provide assistance to the North this year. (Yonhap)