The United Nations has launched an appeal for $111 million to help a vast portion of North Korea's population now facing a food crisis.
U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for North Korea Ghulam Isaczai told VOA's Margaret Besheer the funding will help five U.N. aid agencies working on the ground to continue providing North Koreans with food, clean water and other basics in 2015.
The United Nations says 70 percent of the population, or 18 million North Koreans, are food insecure and lack nutritional diversity.
But Isaczai said of those, nearly 2 million, mostly children, pregnant and lactating women and the elderly, are in dire need of food assistance, and another 350,000 women and children need vaccines and health supplies.