HRNK (17.06.2025) – The inaccessibility of robust data in North Korea requires the use of diverse research methods to determine the extent of the current food insecurity. Consequently, this report utilizes various approaches examining the time period between the years of 2018-2024. Sources include open-source reporting, mapping and Geographic Information System (GIS) data, and international trade data. The report also uses the famine theories of both Amartya Sen and Thomas Malthus, in addition to the practice-informed writings of Frederick Cuny.
North Korea has long experienced cycles of food insecurity. Most famously, from 1994 to 1998 North Korea suffered a famine that is estimated to have killed up to 3 million people. After the collapse of the country’s public distribution system (PDS) for food rations in the 1990s, food insecurity has continued to be a chronic issue for North Koreans. Beginning in 2020, the central government’s COVID-19 restrictions severely restricted North Koreans’ most important coping mechanisms for food insecurity, implementing lockdowns and further restrictions on market activity. In 2022, the UN publication “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” reported that 40% of North Koreans were malnourished. With poor harvests, higher food prices, border closures from the COVID-19 pandemic, and restrictive government policies, evidence suggests that North Korean food insecurity has been at its worst since the 1990’s famine.
The inaccessibility of robust data in North Korea requires the use of diverse research methods to determine the extent of the current food insecurity. Consequently, this report utilizes various approaches examining the time period between the years of 2018-2024. Sources include open- source reporting, mapping and Geographic Information System (GIS) data, and international trade data. The report also uses the famine theories of both Amartya Sen and Thomas Malthus, in addition to the practice-informed writings of Frederick Cuny.
Research into North Korea will always lack the exact data that would allow for complete certainty. However, by examining the social, economic, agricultural, and political aspects of the current North Korean food situation, this report ultimately provides a holistic picture of the acute food insecurity faced by the North Korean people.
Updated report by Human Rights Without Frontiers
