An official at the UN’s World Food Program(WFP) says the North Korean people seem to be suffering from serious malnourishment due to severe food shortages.

WFP communications officer James Belgrave gave the assessment on Wednesday after visiting the communist country with a United Nations team for two weeks in March. 

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the WFP recently released a food security assessment report that says more than ten million North Koreans are suffering “severe food shortages” after the worst harvest in a decade. 

Belgrave told Yonhap News that many North Koreans responded to the WFP survey that they are only able to consume eggs two or three times a year and lack regular access to meat.

The communications officer added that the recent UN report was based on inspections of and interviews with North Korean families, nurseries, food rationing centers and government agencies in 37 regions across the nation.