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TOKYO — The ravages of floods and soured diplomacy have turned North Korea’s chronic food shortages into an imminent humanitarian crisis, the World Food Program warned Wednesday, declaring that the secretive dictatorship will require massive food aid in the coming months if it is to avert widespread hunger.
The U.N. agency projects that North Korea’s food shortages will be double last year’s deficit. Prices on food items such as rice and potatoes have soared 25 percent over the past three weeks in the capital, Pyongyang.
“Local officials are openly asking us for support, something we’ve never seen before,” said the head of the World Food Program’s North Korean operation, Jean-Pierre de Margerie, who is in Pyongyang.
