The director of the World Food Program, David Beasley, said today after a several-day visit to North Korea that the country is turning a new page in history.
"I'm hopeful. I believe there is a genuine desire to move forward," Beasley told Britain's BBC television network. The director of that UN program stayed in North Korea from May 8 to 11, where he observed the country's agricultural activities.
Beasley, who was once the governor of the US state of South Carolina, spent two days in Pyongyang and two days in a rural area, which he assessed as a precedent for the North Korean authorities to allow such a visit outside the capital.
According to him, the state of hunger has decreased compared to the XNUMXs, when several thousand people died due to hunger and malnutrition.
Beasley said that in rural areas, he saw villagers sowing without mechanization with the help of bullock carts.
"Everything seems very organized. They use every meter of land, they even sow right up to the road, using all possible soil," Beasley said.
According to last year's UN report, more than 10,5 million people or about 41 percent of the population were malnourished, while 18 million (70 percent of the population) depended on the state distribution of grains and potatoes.
Analysts believe that the North Korean economy is under threat because of the policy of the state leadership that has invested money in nuclear weapons, which has led to international sanctions and isolation.
The announced historic meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump on June 12 in Singapore and Pyongyang's renunciation of nuclear tests could lead to the country's exit from international isolation.
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