N Korea at crossroads

North Korea food shortage turns into new Asia humanitarian crisis

Regime clamps down on hoarding as rationing system on verge of collapse

20210720 Kim Jong-un Food Shortage

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is struggling to increase food supply as the COVID pandemic keeps his country's borders closed. (Source photos by Kyodo and KCNA/Reuters)

GABRIELA BERNAL, Contributing writer
July 21, 2021 15:03 JST

SEOUL -- North Korea's food shortages have reached crisis levels, and inequalities have sharply widened ever since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the country to close its borders in January last year.

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