SEOUL: North Korea faces an "unusual" and "severe" drought this year and is working to protect crops, state media said Thursday (Apr 30). Natural disasters tend to have an outsized impact on the diplomatically isolated country due to its weak infrastructure and economy. Elizabeth Salmon, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said in February that food shortages are already a key concern. "An unusual drought has recently persisted across much of the country, a phenomenon