“Hard to see the effects of the drought when the place is covered in snow and ice...”
I have a world map on my office wall: North Korea is about the same latitude as Colorado. Yep, winter time and drought is usually not affecting crops when the ground is frozen. Who wrote this crap?
North Korea has been suffering from a drought since the 1950s. Curiously it has not effected the south.
It could be fake news, but it does take time for droughts and shortages to affect the population. Plus, we don't get immediate intel from North Korea. Our satellites can only tell us so much. Wee have extremely limited human intel on the ground. The defectors are helpful, but they don't know all that Kimmy has going on. He has compartmentalized his chain of command for his own survival.