The country has been wracked by hunger for six years. Drought and flood in 1995 combined with the aftermath of decades of mismanagement and the loss of Soviet subsidies to push its economy into collapse. While bad weather is partly to blame for the string of poor harvests, Mr Morton also pointed to the country's inability to produce critical fertilisers and pesticides. The economy is still reeling from the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, which had been North Korea's largest trading partner and aid donor. Conditions have improved since the darkest years of 1996 and 1997, but Mr Morton said food would be a problem until North Korea found a way to revive its economy.
Humanitarian aid is only a safety net.
For an end to the shortages the economy must recover.'' The World Food Program, a UN agency, supplied more than 800,000 tonnes of food to North Korea last year. Most of that went to feeding 6 million children in about 80 per cent of the country. Relief is still barred from reaching areas deemed important to national security, particularly along the heavily armed border with South Korea. Mr Morton said children and pregnant women had suffered most. Almost two-thirds of North Korean children are too short for their age, and health care is scarce amid a shortage of drugs.