SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- In a new admission of its problems, North Korea said Monday that it faces another year of acute food shortages despite massive outside aid.
"The food situation this year still remains very difficult," the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported.North Korea's chronic food shortages have been aggravated by four years of floods and bad weather, which began in 1995. It has since been relying on outside aid to feed its 23 million people.
Despite the $1 billion in international food aid, shortages and famine-related illnesses have killed up to 2 million North Koreans during the past four years.
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Two-thirds of all children under 7 are malnourished, and lack of food has stunted the growth of millions more.