A major report on global food insecurity has excluded North Korea from its list of countries currently facing a food crisis, repeatedly citing a lack of data even as it emphasizes that the food situation appears to be deteriorating.

“Information on acute food insecurity in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is challenging to obtain,” the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2023 states, warning that low water supplies and continuing border closures due to COVID-19 have likely exacerbated the “fragile food and nutrition situation” observed in 2021.