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A compounding factor in the food situation in North Korea is the course of the FMD outbreak in the country. Given the food shortages, culled animals are no doubt being eaten. But that is obviously not a good thing, and if the disease—which has so far affected mostly pigs—jumps to draught animals then both the summer harvest and particularly planting will be affected.
Promised updates through the World Organization for Animal Health have not been forthcoming. But two sources of information—somewhat in tension—suggest the situation is by no means under control.
The FAO Media Centre reports on the joint FAO and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) mission to the country (February 27 and March 8). In standard international organization-speak, the mission found that “the country's capacity and that of veterinary services to detect and contain FMD outbreaks need significant strengthening -- in particular as regards implementing best-practices in biosecurity measures and improving laboratory infrastructure and capacity.” In short, the strained veterinary system is simply not up to the task. FAO estimates around $1 million is required immediately for training, supplies and infrastructure, vaccine acquisition and the setting up of monitoring, reporting and response systems.
The WFP/FAO/UNICEF report is a bit more blunt and fills in some of the details:
“The spreading FMD outbreak poses a serious threat to food security in DPRK. The ploughing season is approaching and infected draught cattle will be unable to work the land, putting agricultural production at risk. FMD is also producing a high mortality rate in piglets (80%) and reducing meat and dairy milk production and thus availability.
….
To bring the FMD epidemic under control, and to prevent further risks for food security the CMC-AH team recommended the implementation of an emergency action plan, through the following steps: 1) FMD surveillance to locate and map disease clusters; 2) Protecting unaffected farms through movement controls; 3) Improving bio- security measures to prevent further spread of the disease; 4) Adequate sampling in order to correctly identify the virus strain or strains involved; 5) The strategic use of the appropriate vaccines to contain and isolate disease clusters.”
In short, these things are not being done.
