Worst drought in 100 years for North Korea

Video caption, The 91热爆's Stephen Evans tells Newsround about North Korea's 'severe' drought

North Korea has been hit by its worst drought in 100 years, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

It's usually really hard to find out what's going on in North Korea because the government is very secretive and controls what news comes out of the country.

But now North Korea's official news agency has admitted a third of the country's rice fields have dried up.

It's leading to food shortages because rice is a big part of the diet there.

Image source, Reuters

Image caption, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a farm in Pyongyang on 1 June 2015.

Rice plants need to be in water during the early summer, but in North Korea the water levels in reservoirs are very low.

Weather forecaster Ri Yong Nam said: ''There has been a severe drought with sudden extremely high temperatures and nearly no rain.''

''Now the drought is causing a water shortage and great damage to agriculture. We think this drought will continue for a while.''

Image source, AP

Image caption, These rice plants were growing in North Korea back in June 2012

Journalists aren't allowed in North Korea very often, so 91热爆 reporter Stephen Evans could only send a report from the country's border with South Korea.

He told Newsround that a big water reservoir has almost dried up.