Democratic People's Republic of Korea Country Book

Last update: February 2025

This page contains information about some of the data available in the FEWS NET Data Explorer (FDE) for Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). This is not a comprehensive guide.

For information about using the filters and fields for specific domains in the FDE, see Choose a Data Domain.

Summary table

Country food security context

Statistical reporting units

North Korea is organized into three levels of administrative units used for statistical reporting.

Administrative (admin) units are the geographical areas into which a country is divided. FEWS NET uses the following terminology: National boundary = admin 0, First sub-national division = admin 1 (e.g., states in the United States), Second sub-national division = admin 2 (e.g., counties in the United States), and so on.

Admin 1: Provinces and 4 special municipalities, including Pyongyang City.

Admin 2: Cities, counties, districts.

Admin 3: Towns, villages, neighborhoods, worker’s districts.

Another type of administrative structure exists, called a Special Administrative Region, of which there are three, designating specific areas of Special Municipalities and/or provinces with unique features oriented to facilitating international economic collaborations. 

Evolution of statistical reporting units

FEWS NET codes for North Korean provinces and special municipalities have been assigned a theoretic start date of 1980, but some are centuries old and some are newer.

Since 1980, the principal changes in Admin 1-level units have been the creation, dissolution and/or reappearance of Special Municipalities.

• 2004: Kaesong City was merged into Hwanghae North province. 

• 2010: Nampo City and Rason City became Special Municipalities, split from Pyongang South and Hamgyong North, respectively. 

• 2019: Kaesong city re-emerged as a Special Municipality, being split from Hwanghae North.

Note that Nampo City, which did not become a Special Municipality until 2010, nevertheless reported crop statistics separately from Pyongang South as early as 1997.  Kaesong City, which was merged with Hwanghae North in 2004 also reported crop statistics separately from that province in 2004.

Crop data

Explore our crop data.

View our documentation on using the Crop Domain.

Crop estimate data sources

Crop statistics available for the country have been assembled since 1995 by United Nations-led Crop and Food Supply Assessment Missions (CFSAMs) which include government participation and oversight. The most recent crop statistics available from CFSAM reporting are from 2017.

The crop statistics are generally reported at the Admin 1 level, but in early years of the exercise, because not all provinces were visited, some results reflected an aggregated estimate for several provinces (often including Changang, Kaesong City, Nampo City, Hamyong North, Pyongyang City, Ryanggang and Hamyong South).  These are not included in the statistics found in this dataset. 

Public availability of CFSAM reporting on crop statistics for North Korea is spotty. Some early reports can be found at GIEWS - Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture, FAO. 

Year and season definition

The annual cropping cycle in North Korea is generally considered to begin in November and end in October of the following year.  The cropping year is therefore mostly referred to with a single-year notation (e.g. “2023”), this being the year in which the harvests occur.

Important grain crops (wheat, barley) are considered Winter crops and are planted as early as November. The winter harvests are generally completed by late June or into July. 

The country’s Spring crops are planted as early as March and harvested between August and October. 

Crop statistics context

CFSAM crop assessments in North Korea generally consist of short-window, highly-managed site visits to look at some of the country’s main crop growing areas, and include numerous consultations with government officials.  Estimates rely on previous estimates as a baseline, and remote sensing establishes broad parameters for annual yields and sowing estimates.

CFSAM reporting focuses only on six crops: rice, wheat, barley, maize, soybean, and potatoes. No production system breakouts are provided by season or type of production system.   

Methodology

Standard CFSAM assessment methods are described at FAO/WFP Joint Guidelines for Crop and Food Security Assessment Missions (CFSAMs) .