10.1 million North Koreans will be in “urgent need of food assistance” in 2020, the United Nations Resident Coordinator for DPRK indicated on Monday, despite Kim Jong Un’s claims of a “bumper” harvest in 2019.

The estimate, which matches World Food Program (WFP) and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) figures from May 2019, came with explanation about the challenges facing North Korea’s food production sector.

“Food insecurity is mainly driven by insufficient agriculture production (and) households’ inability to cope with recurrent natural disasters, which have major impact on productive assets,” the provisional “Needs and Priorities” report for 2020 said.

But