Threat of Famine Seen for N. Korea

North Korea is sending millions of people from its cities to work on farms each weekend, another indication that the risk of famine is particularly high this year, a United Nations official said Wednesday.

The U.N.’s World Food Program is the only aid organization operating in North Korea that has a presence outside Pyongyang, the capital, and its officials have reported movements of the nation’s people from cities to farms, said Anthea Webb, spokeswoman for the Rome-based agency.

“It’s not a new phenomenon, but it certainly caught our folks’ attention in terms of the size and the scale,” she said. “I suppose also we’re so worried about the situation; it’s one more sign that things aren’t going well.”

The isolated nation has depended on outside support to feed its 23 million people since the 1990s. An estimated 2 million North Koreans starved to death after the regime’s state farm system collapsed following decades of mismanagement and the loss of subsidies from Moscow.

The World Food Program recently launched a new appeal for food donations, saying the supplies that let it feed 6.5 million North Koreans were dwindling.