N Korea food crisis

UN World Food Programme feeding about 8m people Up to 2m dead since mid-1990s Last autumn harvest 1.8m tonnes short of 4.8m tonne goal Source: UN World Food Programme

In South Korea, fire departments have begun distributing emergency water rations, and some factories have closed down.

This is the rice-planting season, but many farmers living in the worst-hit areas have given up planting crops because of water shortages.

Emergency meeting

At an emergency meeting, government officials discussed plans to tackle the severe drought and are earmarking millions of dollars to build irrigation channels and drill for underground water.

Agriculture experts said up to 10% of crops would be damaged; vegetable prices have already risen sharply.

In North Korea, the situation is exacerbating existing food shortages.

Rainfall in the communist country's main rice growing belt was just 10% of normal levels.

The state run news agency KCNA said no harvest was expected in hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland.

The country is expected to face its worst food shortages in three years, making it increasingly dependent on the outside world to help feed its starving people.