North Korea says it's facing worst food shortage in decade

Kim Tok Hun, North Korea's premier and member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, is pictured during his inspection of the different farms in North Korea, in this undated photo supplied by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency. - KCNA via Reuters

PYONGYANG (Bloomberg): North Korea is facing its worse food shortages in more than a decade, it said in a report to the United Nations, giving the world notice Pyongyang is bracing for one of its biggest domestic challenges since Kim Jong-Un took power.

Food production dropped to its lowest level in 2018 due to "natural disasters and weak resilience, insufficient farming materials and low level of mechanization, ” North Korea said in a Voluntary National Review for a United Nations examination of its Sustainable Development Goals. South Korea’s mission to the UN gave notice of the report on Tuesday (July 13) and it’s apparently to the first time North Korea has made it public.