Correction: This article has been amended due to a mistranslation. The shipment contained 25,000 (metric) tonnes, not 25,000 tons.

A food aid shipment containing 25,000 tonnes of wheat arrived in North Korea from Russia on Thursday, according to a Facebook post published by the Russian embassy in Pyongyang.

The shipment comes as new worries have emerged in recent weeks about the DPRK’s food insecurity problems and whether they may have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and Pyongyang’s related border closures.

“On May 14, Ambassador A. Matsegora and Embassy diplomats visited the port of Nampho, where a cargo ship under the flag of Sierra Leone recently arrived, delivering 25 thousand tonnes of selected grain from Novorossiysk,” the post said.

“Due to the fact that the ship’s crew is quarantined and unloading is carried out in an isolated area of the port, it was necessary to observe the well-coordinated, accurate work of the Korean dockers and railway workers from afar.”

The post claimed that not “a single grain” was lost while the cargo was transferred from the port to the railroad.

“As we were told by the head of the port, comrade Kim Hyun-Chol, at least 40 wagons of wheat leave from here to Pyongyang every day, where it is put into storage or put into processing at flour mills,” the post continued.

“Taking into account the expected rains, the end of unloading is scheduled for May 26-27,” it said.

“The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK who accompanied us said that they highly appreciate the humanitarian assistance provided by our country in this difficult time.”

A UN report published in late April warned that some 10.4 million North Koreans — about four out of every 10 people in the country — are in “urgent need” of nutritional support.

“The people of the [DPRK] remain caught in a protracted cycle of humanitarian need that, notwithstanding tense geopolitical dynamics, necessitates prioritization and action from the global community,” said Frode Mauring, the UN resident coordinator in Pyongyang, in an introduction to that report.

“If we are to limit and mitigate the impact of food insecurity of the most vulnerable in the country, including women and children, the time to act is now,” he said.

Russia’s Facebook post cited the UN’s recent warnings and attributed the need for food aid at least in part to adverse weather conditions, including severe drought, in the DPRK’s rice-growing areas last year.

According to Moscow’s Federal Customs Service, Russia has consistently reported sending grain or flour to the DPRK over the last two years, including the occasional wheat shipment.

China has also consistently reported grain and flour shipments to the North — but not wheat shipments — according to Beijing’s General Administration of Customs (GAC).

In March, however, the GAC only reported minuscule levels of food exports to North Korea.

Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. is watching “closely” for signs of a food crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There is a real risk that there will be a famine, a food shortage inside of North Korea too,” he said at the time.