North Korea says it has been hit by its worst drought in a century, resulting in extensive damage to agriculture.The official Korean Central News Agency said the drought has caused about 30 percent of its rice paddies to dry up. Rice plants normally need to be partially submerged in water during the early summer.
"Recently in our country, there has been a severe drought with sudden extremely high temperatures and nearly no rain," Ri Yong Nam, a senior N. Korean weather official, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Wednesday. "Now the drought is causing a water shortage and great damage to agriculture, and we foresee this drought will continue for a while." He said temperatures in May were 5-7 degrees Celsius higher than normal.