Presentation of Pukchang fish farm (Democratic People Republic of Korea) in the context of a joint partnership project funded by EU

Based on the latest United Nations Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission report (FAO/WFP, 2013), the food production in DPR of Korea (or DPRK) is focused on increasing the production of crops. Even so, diets for a main part of the population present deficiencies in proteins, lipids and micro-nutriments. Access to animal proteins is infrequent and inadequate, the provision of animal products being sporadic, depending on seasonal availability and provided in very low quantities. Only one quarter of children under the age of 2 year receive an adequately diverse diet, and only 23 % of children between 6 and 24 months consumed fresh or dried fish, shellfish or seafood in the last 24 hours according to the National Nutrition Survey conducted in 2012 (CBS, 2013). Access to food is also impacted by the coverage of the Public Distribution System (PDS). Indeed, the majority of DPRK population relies on this PDS for the provision of its staple food. Consequently, DPRK people experience a high vulnerability as PDS functions very erratically (70% of the population are PDS-dependent). In DPRK, school is compulsory from 6 years old. Before their integration to the school system, children who cannot stay at home during the day go to some preschool institutions (nurseries for the children between 0 and 4 years old and kindergarten for the children between 5 and 6 years old). These preschool institutions are named « Bo-Yuk-Ki-Kwan », meaning « care centres for the children ». These institutions are managed either by the neighbourhood committees (in urban areas only) or by an official public administration (at the level of hospitals, farms, industrial centres…).