North Korea has lost more than 200-thousand hectares of forest in less than two decades, new data shows. That’s an area equivalent to 330-thousand soccer fields. 

According to data released by Global Forest Watch(GFW) on Wednesday, North Korea shed 233-thousand hectares of tree cover between 2001 and 2019. 

In particular, Global Forest Watch noted that in 2019, 28-thousand hectares of forest land was logged, marking the first time the deforested area topped 20-thousand over the 19-year period. The GFW did not say why 2019 saw a surge in logging. 

According to the data, logging was carried out extensively in the Yanggang, Chakang and Hamgyong provinces. Logged areas in these three provinces accounted for 64 percent of the total forest the North lost over the cited period.