North Korea this week admitted a “shortage” of medicine in the country in a rare report to the United Nations, but it’s not meant as a cry for help for immediate foreign assistance, an official from South Korea’s unification ministry said on Thursday.

North Korea submitted its first Voluntary National Review (VNR) report on the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an international initiative adopted by all U.N. member states in 2015.

“The lack of the capacity of health personnel, low technical foundation of pharmaceutical and medical appliance plants and shortage of essential medicines remain as challenges,” North