Flooding and poor harvests have caused North Korea’s worst food crisis in nearly a decade and have put millions at risk, the U.N. World Food Program said Wednesday as it called on donors to provide urgent assistance over the next few months. Read the full update on NewsHour, (reported on: July 30, 2008).

NewsHour - Online Forum: The North Korean Famine (originally aired August 26, 1997).
This recent food crisis isn’t the first faced by North Korea. Starting in 1995, the country faced a crippling famine that lasted for years. It took until 2002 for the effects to finally dissipate.
NewsHour approached these topics more than 10 years ago: Is enough being done to end the suffering in North Korea? Should the U.S. and other government follow South Korea’s lead? What can be done by others to help the victims? Is the slow reaction the fault of North Korea, South Korea or some other factor?

Frontline/World: North Korea - Suspicious Minds(created January 2003).
Frontline/World visits North Korea, which is among the most closed societies on the globe. Traveling as tourists, BBC reporter Ben Anderson and cinematographer Wills Daws peek past the sights planned for them on their guided tour and develop surprising rapport with their ideologically pure official minders.