North Korea's failed food policy

International Food Policy Research Institute(IFPRI) has picked North Korea as one of the three nations whose hunger rate has gotten the worst in the past 20 years. The other two nations picked were Congo and Burundi.

IFPRI conducted research to measure "2011 World Hunger Score" for 120 nations all over the world depending on people's nutritional health, proportion of children with low body weight, and death rate of children under 5.

To nobody's surprise, North Korea got 19 points. IFPRI interprets the scores like the following : 10~19(serious), 20~29(dangerous), 30+(extremely dangerous). So 19 points stands right in between serious hunger and dangerous hunger. North Korea's hunger score increased by 18% over the past two decades, becoming the "Loser" nation whose food policy had failed the worst in the world.

IFPRI's spokesperson said, "The possible reason behind these findings are, failed economic policy, high military spending, obscure agricultural technology, and government policies."

According to IFPRI, 33% of the entire North Korean population suffers from malnutrition.

Source: Radio Free Asia(Korean)