Food insecurity is one of North Korea's most significant challenges. According to a recent U.N. estimate, 12 million North Koreans — almost half of the population — are undernourished. 

Climate change and extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, and typhoons, increasingly impact the DPRK's vulnerable agriculture sector. Just this summer alone, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a series of high-profile visits to storm-damaged farms, reprimanded local officials for poor preparations for a typhoon and called for his premier to be punished after an embankment collapsed and fields of crops were flooded.