The United Nations was able to help barely 15 percent of the North Koreans it aimed to support with basic food needs last year, its top official in Pyongyang said today, as donor funding dried up in the face of political tensions.
The implementation of UN Security Council sanctions also hit humanitarian work in the country, with aid supplies and financial transfers delayed or stopped, UN resident coordinator Tapan Mishra told AFP.
"We have roughly 40 percent of the population that are in need of humanitarian assistance," Mishra told AFP. "10.3 million people in this country need help."
In the foreword to the document, Mishra wrote: "The geopolitical environment has meant that the situation for many people in the country has been largely forgotten by the rest of the world."