South Korea’s presidential office says North Korea’s food shortage is perceived by the World Food Program to be serious. 

A senior presidential official told reporters on Tuesday that it was how the WFP's Executive Director David Beasley described the situation during his meeting the previous day with President Moon Jae-in. 

Asked about claims that the North’s food shortages are not as serious, the official said agencies seeing the situation firsthand know the facts better than anyone else, referring to a recent joint field inspection to the North by the WFP and the Food and Agricultural Organization. 

The official also said the WFP surveyed large parts of North Korea to get a more accurate picture without limiting its inspections to areas North Korean officials took them to. 

Meanwhile, the presidential office declined to comment on Pyongyang’s demand earlier in the day that the U.S. return a North Korean cargo ship it recently seized for allegedly violating international sanctions imposed on the regime.