North Korean Holiday

Agricultural production increased from about 2.7 million metric tons in 1997 to 4.2 million metric tons in 2004.^[39] As of 2011, famine continues to be a problem for North Korea, although less so than in the mid to late 1990s. Flooding in 2007 and reductions in food aid exacerbated the problem, however. Moreover, according to Korea Forest Service, the devastation is still affecting North Korea's forests up to now.^[47][48]

In 2011, during a visit to North Korea, US ex-President Jimmy Carter reported that one third of children in North Korea were malnourished and stunted in their growth because of a lack of food. He also said that the North Korean state had reduced daily food intake from 1,400 calories to 700 calories in 2011^[49] (by comparison, a normal food intake for a healthy European is 2,000-2,500 calories per day^[50]). Some scholars believe that North Korea is purposefully exaggerating the food shortage, aiming to receive additional food supplies for its planned 2012 mass celebrations by means of foreign aid.^[51]

Escaped North Koreans have reported that starvation has returned to the nation.^[52] A study by South Korean anthropologists of North Korean children who had defected to China found that 18-year-old males were 5 inches shorter than South Koreans their age. Roughly 45% of North Korean children under the age of five are stunted from malnutrition. Most people eat meat only on public holidays, namely Kim Il-sung's and Kim Jong-il’s birthdays.^[53] It is reported that since the death of Kim Jong-il in December 2011, around 20,000 people have starved to death in South Hwanghae Province alone.^[54][55]