North Korea may be heading for food crisis, Red Cross warns as crops fail in hot weather

A heat wave in North Korea hasled to rice, maize and other crops withering in the fields,"with potentially catastrophic effects,"the InternationalFederation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said onFriday.

The world's largest disaster relief network warned of a riskof a "full-blown food security crisis" in the isolated country, sayingthe worrying situation had been exacerbated byinternational sanctions imposed due to North Korea's nuclear andmissile programs.

There had been no rainfall since early July as temperaturessoared to an average 39 C across thecountry (official name is the Democratic People's Republicof Korea (DPRK)and the next rain was expected in mid-August, it said.

We cannot and must not let this situation become a full-blown food security crisis.- Joseph Muyamboit, ICRC

The population of 25 million is already stressed andvulnerable with malnutrition among children that could worsen, a statement issued in Geneva said.

"This is not yet classified as a drought, but rice, maizeand other crops are already withering in the fields, with potentially catastrophic effects for the people of DPRK," saidJoseph Muyamboit, its programmanager in Pyongyang.

"We cannot and must not let this situation become afull-blown food security crisis," he said. "We know that previous serious dry spells have disrupted the food supply to a point where ithas caused serious health problems and malnutrition across thecountry."

The federation was helping the national Red Cross support13,700 of the most vulnerable people at risk. It had deployedemergency response teams and 20 water pumps to irrigate fieldsin the hardest-hit areas, it said.

David Beasley, head of the UN's World Food Programme(WFP), visited North Korea in May to look into boosting fooddistributions to hungry women and children, in the latest signof an opening.

About 70 per cent of North Koreans are "food insecure,"meaning they struggle to avoid hunger, and one in four childrenunder five is stunted from chronic malnutrition, the WFP said atthe time. A 2015 drought worsened the situation, it said.

North Korea suffered famine in the mid-1990s that killed upto three million people.