North Korean parents 'eating their own children'

A starving man in North Korea has been executed after murdering his two children for food, reports from inside the secretive state claim.

A 'hidden famine' in the farming provinces of North and South Hwanghae is believed to have killed up to 10,000 people and there are fears that incidents of cannibalism have risen.

The grim story is just one to emerge as residents battle starvation after a drought hit farms and shortages were compounded by party officials confiscating food.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has spent vast sums of money on two rocket launches despite reports of desperate food shortages in the country and concerns that 10,000 people have died in a famine

Undercover reporters from Asia Press told the Sunday Times that one man dug up his grandchild's corpse and ate it. Another, boiled his own child for food.

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Despite reports of the widespread famine, Kim Jong Un, 30, has spent vast sums of money on two rocket launches in recent months.

There are fears he is planning a nuclear test in protest at a UN Security Council punishment for the recent rocket launches and to counter what it sees as US hostility. One informant was quoted as saying: 'In my village in May a man who killed his own two children and tried to eat them was executed by a firing squad.'

Farming communities, such as these pictured outside the capital Pyongyang last year, have been desperately hit by drought which has led to reports of people turning to cannibalism in a bid to ward off starvation

One official said the fields are in such a bad state from drought that he had to avert his eyes.

The informant said the father killed his eldest daughter while his wife was away on business and then killed his son because he had witnessed the murder. When his wife returned the man told her they had 'meat' but she became suspicious and contacted officials who discovered part of the children's bodies.

Jiro Ishimaru, from Asia Press, which compiled a 12 page report, said: 'Particularly shocking were the numerous testimonies that hit us about cannibalism.'

Undercover reporters said food was confiscated from the two provinces and given to the residents of the capital Pyongyang.

A drought then left food supplies desperately short.

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