North Korea is reportedly among the three countries hit hardest in the world by natural disasters over the past 20 years. 

According to the Voice of America(VOA), the finding was announced in a report by the Brussels-based Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. 

The analysis showed natural disasters eroded an average seven-point-four percent of North Korea’s gross domestic product annually between 1998 and 2017.

It is the third highest following Haiti and Puerto Rico, which lost 17-point-five percent and 12-point-two percent of their GDPs, respectively, to natural disasters. 

VOA said devastation of natural environment and lack of capacity to foretell weather conditions were among the major causes for repeated disasters in the North.