North Korean children 'forced to water drought-stricken fields at 5am' before shortened school day

As North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un steps up the rate of his hi-tech missile tests, schoolchildren in the hermit kingdom are reportedly being forced to cut class to water crops that are dying in a severe drought.

According to a report on Radio Free Asia’s Korean service, high school and college students in the north of the country have been mandated since mid-May to help water the dry fields from 5am to 10am every day.

Last week the Rodong Sinmun, the North’s biggest newspaper and regime mouthpiece, reported that the country had been struck by an “abysmal” drought.

It claimed that the authorities were involved in “prevention battles” and had dispatched 1,300 sprinkers and about 2,100 portable water pumps.

Pictures published by NK News showed at least three major reservoirs in South Hwanghae Province and next to Pyongyang airport in the capital had completely dried up.