WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by country | Page 240

Standard Project Report 2016
Country Context and WFP Objectives
Country Context
Despite efforts to achieve agricultural self-sufficiency, DPRK does not produce enough food to feed its population.
The country has experienced widespread food shortages since the mid-1990s. Food and nutrition security remain a
significant challenge. Food consumption at household level is limited in quantity, and 73 percent of the population
do not eat a sufficiently diverse diet. WFP's mid-term review in July 2014 of the ongoing operation found that the
population consumes 25 percent less protein and 30 percent less fat per person than the required amount for a
healthy life. One in three children aged 6-59 months, and nearly half of children aged 12-23 months, are anaemic.
The Government's Public Distribution System, established over seven decades ago, continues to provide food
rations, but consistently at lower levels than its target of an average of 573 grams per person per day. In 2016,
DPRK had a global hunger index score of 28.6, classified as “serious” and largely unchanged from the previous
year [1].
Production in DPRK is constrained by both human-induced and natural factors. Insufficient arable land,
over-cultivation, low levels of irrigation, low mechanisation, and scarcity of quality fertilisers and pesticides are all
underlying causes of food insecurity. In addition, inclement weather shortens the cropping season and droughts are
common. Mountains and upland slopes comprise 80 percent of the country's terrain, and historic food and energy
shortages have forced people to cultivate on steep slopes, as well as cut trees for fuel. As a result, the country is
prone to flash floods, landslides and dangerous flows of debris, which undermine further the country's food security
outlook. In 2016, heavy rainfall at the end of August in the north led to some of the worst floods the country has
recently experienced, affecting 143,000 people who either partially or completely lost their homes.
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (KP)
3
Single Country PRRO - 200532