Mick Hartley

Signs of desperation:

North Korean children are reportedly being secretly dropped off at orphanages by desperate parents unable to feed them, amid chronic food shortages in the reclusive state.

The practice is said to be fuelled by the belief that orphanages are receiving supplies of food and medicine donated by the international community, despite restrictive Covid-19 policies that have severely hampered the flow of overseas aid.

“Women who are starving to death are secretly leaving their children … at night or in the early morning, and then they disappear with no trace,” a source in South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, told Radio Free Asia.

“[They know] that the international community has been sending things like food, oil, and clothing to the orphanages over the years, so the kids will at least not starve.”