By Kang Aa-young

North Korea still needs continued humanitarian assistance because many mothers and young children there still relied on aid to meet their nutritional needs, UN World Food Program (WFP) chief David Beasley said Friday.

He said after a four-day visit to the North that, he did not see starvation as there was in the 1990s, but there was obvious hunger and under-nutrition.

"There is a real need for continued humanitarian assistance, especially when it comes to meeting the nutritional needs of mothers and young children," he said.

According to the Washington Post, the WFP estimates that more than 10 million of North Korea's 24.8 million people (40 percent) are undernourished, with one in three young mothers and children under aged five or under 5 suffering from anemia.

The WFP feeds about 500,000 women and children every month with food such as porridge and high-energy biscuits. But the organization says its food aid program is "severely underfunded."

Accompanied by government minders, Beasley spent four days in North Korea, two in the capital Pyongyang and two in the countryside.