N.Korea food, currency reserves drying up: Report

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - North Korea is running short fast on foreign currency, food, and oil reserves that they would not hold up not even for a year, according to a report Monday.

The Seoul-based daily Chosunilbo said Kim Song, North Korea's ambassador to the UN, has sent letters to international organizations on March 20 appealing for food donations.

The daily also said South Korea's top spy agency last Friday told country's lawmakers that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had "confiscated dollar holdings" of representatives of its key overseas trading companies who were in charge of raising foreign currency for the regime.

The daily said Kim regime punished some of the overseas trading companies’ chiefs for corruption and some were even "let-off after they paid $50,000-100,000 each".