North Koreans short of rice, starve to death

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http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_801260.html

Food shortages have worsened even in North Korea's south-western rice belt and some residents have starved to death there, a Seoul-based online newspaper said on Monday.

'Because of worsening food shortages this year there were reports of people starving to death even in South and North Hwanghae provinces,' a Daily NK reporter told AFP, referring to the country's agricultural heartland.

Six people - children or the elderly - died in just one village in Shingye county after the authorities released an emergency supply of only one or two kilograms of corn to each household, the paper said.

It quoted another source as saying that about 10 people had died of starvation on each collective farm in and around the coastal city of Haeju by April, following shortages in late winter.