Story highlights U.N. warns of "looming humanitarian disaster" in North Korea due to drought with famine likely to follow

Even state media, which usually paint a rosy picture, have expressed concerns

U.N. official calls on international community to provide help

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) Even a simple piece of fruit was unfamiliar to Lee So-yeon when she fled North Korea seven years ago. She had never seen an orange. So when she came across one at a South Korean market, she bit into it like an apple -- peel and all.

During the famine of the 1990s, Lee was forced to eat grass from the mountains to survive.

"We were told that any grass that rabbits eat is edible," she says. "So we picked any grass we could find that wasn't poisonous and mixed it with rice, or used it to make grass porridge.

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"Children were suffering from malnutrition. Their stomachs were very swollen. ... Their whole faces were covered with fine hair and their hair was a very light brown color instead of black. Their arms and legs were so skinny they looked like tree branches."

Now, North Koreans are again facing a "looming humanitarian disaster in the DPRK," or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, according to the United Nations human rights chief.

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