SOME 10 million people in North Korea are facing “severe food shortages” after the east-Asian nation had one of the worst harvests in a decade, the UN’s food agencies have said.
The shortfall is the result of climatic conditions like droughts and flooding, as well as a lack of fuel and fertiliser – partly a result of international sanctions aimed at leader Kim Jong Un over his nuclear weapons programme.
The World Food Programme and the Food and Agricultural Organisation estimate North Korea’s production from the 2018-19 harvest was the lowest in a decade at 4.9m tonnes.
The agencies said: “Following the worst harvest in 10 years, due to dry spells, heatwaves and flooding, about 10.1m people suffer from severe food shortages, meaning they do not have enough food until the next harvest.”
The situation is “particularly worrisome for young children and pregnant and breastfeeding women, who are the most vulnerable to malnutrition”, it added.
A GRAND council meeting in Afghanistan convened by President Ashraf Ghani has ended with a call for peace with the Taliban and a promise from the president to free 175 Taliban prisoners ahead of Ramadan, which starts next week.
The council, known as Loya Jirga, brought together more than 3200 participants, politicians and tribal elders to hammer out a shared strategy for future negotiations with the Taliban.
“I want to say to the Taliban that the choice is now in your hands,” Ghani said at the Kabul ceremony. “Now it is your turn to show what you want to do.”
He said the message of the five-day gathering was clear: “Afghans want peace.”
IN India, Cyclone Fani has made landfall on the eastern coast as a grade five storm.
The India Meteorological Department said the “extremely severe” cyclone in the Bay of Bengal hit the state of Odisha at about 8am local time on Friday.
The country’s National Disaster Response Force said around 1.2m people had been evacuated and moved to nearly 4000 shelters.
AND in Vietnam, a woman who was tried in the killing of the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader has been released from a Malaysian prison and flown back to Hanoi.
Doan Thi Huong gave thanks “to everybody who prayed for me” in a video taken in the plane before take off.
“I want to say I love you all. I thank you my Lord Jesus. Thank you so much,” she said.
After her sentencing last month, Huong said she wanted to “sing and act” when she returned to Vietnam.
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