Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make representations at the UN on (a) the increasing level of malnutrition among (i) young children and (ii) other people in North Korea and (b) reports that about 40 per cent of the population of that country are at risk of that condition.

The UN estimates that 10.9m people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) (an increase of 600,000 over 2018), all of whom are food insecure. An estimated 10.3m people are under-nourished. The UK provides no bilateral funding to the DPRK. The UK contributes to the UN Central Emergency Fund (CERF), along with other bilateral donors. CERF provided US$10m in humanitarian funding to DPRK in 2018, including allocations to the World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organisation for work on nutrition security. The CERF makes independent decisions on the allocation of resources based on assessed need.