North Korea has reportedly requested international food assistance after significant flood damage exacerbated the isolated nation’s food shortage.

Voice of America(VOA) reported on Tuesday that it received an email from Indian Chamber of International Business(ICIB) president Manpreet Singh saying that he was contacted by the North Korean embassy in New Delhi seeking to gauge the possibility of rice donations for North Koreans.

Singh said that it was related to the fact that recent floods destroyed most of the North’s agricultural produce.

The ICIB posted photos on its website of two men presumed to be North Koreans with a caption reading that North Korean officials visited the ICIB office in New Delhi to discuss humanitarian grain assistance.

Regarding an earlier VOA report that India is arranging a vessel to send ten-thousand tons of rice to the North, Singh said that he was unaware of any such effort but the quantity of rice mentioned in the report is similar to what the North requested.

[Photo : YONHAP News]