Thursday, September 18, 2008

North Korea begins its annual harvest

North Korea has begun this year's autumn harvest, state radio said Thursday, amid chronic food shortages in the communist state.

"Rice harvest has begun in farm villages in (the southwestern province of) South Hwanghae," as monitored by Yonhap news agency.

Chronic food shortages worsened this year following floods and shortages of fertilizer last year.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says hunger is at its worst since the famine years of the 1990s, with up to six million people in immediate need out of a population of 23 million.

[AFP]

No comments: