Sources inside North Korea say the regime has heavily increased its military training recently, but do not have the food supplies to feed its soldiers.

A source in Ryanggang Province said earlier this week: “The 12th Army Corps began exercises on the first of the month, but the leading commander said during opening inspections that he had merely received orders to carry out the drills but had not received any accompanying provisions—quite the disconcerting welcome.

“After this, the soldiers were taken through the ideological and physical drills and told to express their enthusiasm for becoming ‘young heroes of the nation,’ but their reactions were lukewarm at best.”

Under Kim Jong-il's North Korea regime soldiers were kept well fed, however, the regime is no longer able to provide for them.

It was revealed soldiers had been forced to loot farms to feed themselves after reports showed that the communist regime has ordered the military to acquire its own food supplies.

The source in Ryanggang Province went on to add: “It is quite absurd that military personnel have to collect these provisions themselves. And such orders were handed down in all provinces, covering all military divisions across the country.

Soldiers from the 43rd Brigade raided fields at night, it was revealed.

The source said: “They all gathered for the surprise attack, fanned out across the farms and swept up all the corn.

“It’s not an everyday occurrence for the 43rd Brigade to go around plundering the farms, but they have become much more brazen this year.

“The authorities have to feed the soldiers before they will be able to fight the enemy.”

Jiro Ishimaru, a Japanese filmmaker, who has close sources inside North Korea, said: “For one thing, there are too many soldiers to feed,” and “corruption is rife, so that by the time senior military officers have taken their share of food provisions to sell for profit on the private market, there is next to nothing left for ordinary soldiers.”

The World Food Program (WFP) estimates that approximately 70 per cent of the dictator-run state's population, of nearly 25 million people, do not have regular and reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

This comes after a soldier defected to South Korea running across the demilitarised zone while his comrades shot at him.

In the process, he was shot a total of 5 times, which revealed a stomach full of parasites, tuberculosis, and Hepatitis B.

According to reports, the lead surgeon who worked on the North Korean soldier's bullet wounds, said his medical team found various white parasitic worms in the man’s digestive tract as they removed the bullets.

Surgeon, Lee Cook-jong, said: “Everything was stained with blood, but the parasite was basically a really white colour and this thick, big, long and very, very hard, this kind of thing was getting out from his bowel system.”

The medical team managed to remove all of the worms, some of which were as long as 10 inches.

Another North Korean defector told the Sun: “The main difficulty conscripts must endure is constant hunger.

“Soldiers in the special units are well taken care of but those stationed outside the capital Pyongyang are only given two or three potatoes a meal or are fed solely on raw corn kernels or corn rice.”

The defector went on to say: “The military police are always on the lookout for soldiers who’ve escaped to look for food.

“Sometimes these soldiers steal from civilians and farming stockrooms because they’re so hungry. If it’s edible, they’ll steal it.

“I’ve heard that some senior officers will even order soldiers to go out and steal. If they fail they may be punished.

“In my high school class, there were 25 boys. Five went to college and the remaining 20 went into the military.

“Half of those were returned home suffering from the effects of malnutrition.

“Soldiers are given home leave to recover. Most are too weak to even walk by themselves, so their parents pick them up and feed them back to health.

“When they improve they go back to the army.

“The lucky ones serve in the special unit or serve under good officers who take care of them.

“The unlucky ones die of hunger before their parents have a chance to help them. The only thing these parents pray for is the safe return of their sons.”