U.N. Agency Reports Worst Drought in 16 Years in North Korea<br />Despite United Nations sanctions, North Korea’s external trade grew by an estimated 4.7 percent to $6.55 billion last<br />year, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, a government-invested organization in South Korea, said on Friday.<br />By CHOE SANG-HUNJULY 21, 2017<br />SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea is suffering its worst drought in 16 years, a United Nations agency reported on Friday, raising fears of worsening food shortages in the country, where children<br />and other vulnerable groups have been malnourished for years.<br />Also on Friday, South Korea’s central bank, the Bank of Korea, said that the North Korean economy grew by about 3.9 percent last year.<br />In September, after the North’s fifth nuclear test, South Korea did not offer humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of flood victims in North Korea, saying<br />that the country should divert the money spent on weapons to buy food for its people.<br />" the agency said in a statement. that Increased food imports, commercial or through food aid, would be required during the next three<br />months at the peak of the lean season, ensuring adequate food supply for the most vulnerable, including children and elders,<br />North Korea’s production of staple crops for this year, including rice, corn, potatoes<br />and soybeans, has been severely damaged by prolonged dry spells "threatening food security for a large part of its population," the agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization, said in a report prepared in collaboration with the European Commission’s Joint Research Center.
