A United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report says North Korea is suffering its worst drought in 16 years, which is worsening food shortage fears, especially for children and other vulnerable groups already malnourished. North Korea’s last severe food shortage in the 1990s caused it to issue a rare appeal for international help. More than one million people died in that famine. Since then, North Korea has encouraged trade with China to increase access to food, as well as improving its own food supply. But international donors have become increasingly reluctant to offer aid due to North Korea’s provocative weapons testing. In September 2016, South Korea did not offer humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of flood victims in North Korea and said the country should divert money spent on weapons to buy food for its people. North Korea has urged the country to produce more goods to overcome the “barbaric” international sanctions pushed by the United Nations. – Sourced from the New York Times