Their growth is stunted, their arms and legs are spindly, and even though they aren't sick, they have very little life in them. Many are still very malnourished. Part of the reason is that birth rates have plummeted. Low birthweight predicts childhoods marked by high rates of disease and death, and it cannot be reversed with food aid alone. There is a clear health crisis in North Korea.
Tuberculosis is at epidemic proportions, aid workers say.
Diarrhea is another plague that is especially dangerous for children. Outside the capital, there is virtually no safe drinking water and very little of the Oral Rehydration Salts that have saved millions of children's lives in other hurting places in the world. So-called 'alternative food' is to blame for a lot of the problems. Everyone seems to be eating a mixture of a little corn, cut with a lot of dried leaves and twigs. That may fill your belly, but it robs you of your health.