Page "History of North Korea" Paragraph 31

As a result, North Korea is now dependent on international food aid to feed its population.

According to Amnesty International, more than 13 million people, over half the population of the country, suffered from malnutrition in the DPRK in 2003.

In 2001 the DPRK received nearly $ 300 million USD in food aid from the U. S., South Korea, Japan, and the European Union, plus much additional aid from the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.

Unspecified ( but apparently large ) amounts of aid in the form of food, oil and coal are also provided by China every year.

Despite this, North Korea maintained its hostile rhetoric against the U. S., South Korea and Japan.

The supply of heating and electricity outside the capital is practically non-existent, and food and medical supplies are scarce.

When there is a bad harvest, as has been persistently the case over recent years, the population faces actual famine: a situation never before seen in a peacetime industrial economy.

Since 1997 there has been a steady stream of illegal emigration to China, despite the efforts of both countries to prevent it.

Illegal North Koreans caught in China were often deported back to North Korea where most of them were tortured, killed, or sent to a reeducation camp.

Those who weren't caught were often forced into slave labor or prostitution anywhere in China.