North Korea is facing food shortages. International aid agencies report that the situation is dire, with millions facing the prospect of starvation in coming months without help. Even if those estimates are exaggerated, there is no escaping the fact that North korea cannot feed its own people.
What is not so clear is why that is so. The Pyongyang government blames nature for the shortfall, but experts insist that the problem is political — poor decisions and misplaced priorities. But even if North Korea's problems are man-made, what does that imply for the response?
It's "another" food crisis in North Korea. Since the 1990s, the country has suffered chronic food shortages and malnutrition. It is estimated that at least 1 million people, out of a population of 22 million, died of hunger in the last great famine. Today, an estimated 5 million people — almost 20 percent of the population face food shortages. One in every three children is malnourished.