UN expert sounds alarm on North Korea, says 'some starving, many eating twice a day'

A United Nations human rights expert has voiced alarm over widespread food shortages and malnutrition in North Korea which has worsened due to the coronavirus pandemic. Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea told the Security Council that an increasing number of families eat only twice a day, or eat only corn, while some are starving.

North Korea has been facing multiple sanctions due to its nuclear and missile programmes that have impacted the food import, leading to widespread starvation. During the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, China closed its borders for months which exacerbated the food shortages. Ojea Quintana urged the Council to ease the sanctions imposed on North Korea and called on Pyongyang to allow humanitarian aid during these unprecedented times.

Last year, the UN’s World Food Programme had estimated that 10.1 million people suffer from severe food shortages after the worst harvest in 10 years. In the Joint Rapid Food Security Assessment, the UN Mission said that the food insecurity situation is serious and could become critical during the lean season.

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The food crisis was amplified by the coronavirus pandemic as North Korea sealed its borders and didn’t even report COVID-19 cases to the World Health Organisation (WHO). North Korea has not reported a single confirmed case of coronavirus so far which the Politburo had reportedly called as a result of the country’s “top-class emergency anti-epidemic measures” from the outset.

Focus on self-sufficient economy

North Korea’s state media reported on June 8 that its leader Kim Jong Un has stressed on the development of a self-sufficient economy and improvement of the standard of living at a politburo meeting. The international sanctions of North Korea to curb its nuclear activities have forced the country to opt for import substitution. According to KNCA, North’s Supreme Leader discussed some urgent problems related to the chemical industry and emphasised that the chemical and metallurgical industries are the twin-pillars of the “self-supporting economy”.

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