Worst drought in century hits North Korea

North Korea is experiencing its worst drought in a century, sparking fears of more severe food shortages in the impoverished country, state-run media says.

The North's main rice-growing provinces have been badly damaged due to the severe drought, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday.

"The worst drought in 100 years continues in the DPRK (North Korea), causing great damage," it said, adding that the "water level of reservoirs stands at the lowest, while rivers and streams getting dry."

The agency said no rainfall was recorded South and North Hwanghae provinces and more than 30 percent of paddy fields dried up across the country.

Average rainfall in vital growing period, between mid-February and late April, fell to only 35 percent of normal seasons in previous years.

South Korea's unification ministry, monitoring the drought in Korean Peninsula, has predicted that the North's 2015 crop production could fall 20 percent year-on-year.

In the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of people died from famine in North Korea.

The UN says over 70 percent of North Koreans are food insecure.

MRA/KA

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