Abstract

The present study was conducted to determine whether the food shortage situation in North Korea has affected its people differentially according to social class. We performed a literature search on North Korean books and documents on food and nutrition. We also conducted a mail survey on North Korean defectors to estimate the energy and nutrient intake and the practice of foraging for wild foods at the time of food crisis in North Korea. The subjects were 150 adults, 104 men and 46 women, aged 20 years and older, who resettled in the South Korea after the food crisis. The mean energy intakes for men and women were estimated to be 1,260 kcal and 980.6 kcal, respectively, which were far less than 2,900 kcal and 2,600 kcal, the intake levels recommended for North Korean men and women, respectively. Thirty seven percent of the subjects reported a lack of foods adequate enough for work and other daily activities, and fifty seven percent reported a routine use of wild foods such as roots, grass, stalks, and tree bark with an average of 4 items per day. Food consumption patterns on a typical day were different by social classes with the high class people consuming an affluent diet in the midst of a severe food shortage.

• Keywords: food shortage; energy intake; nutrient intake; North Korea;