SEOUL - About one million people have died from starvation and related disease in North Korea since 1995, according to the latest U.S. State Department Human Rights report, according to AFP.

On top of a high critical description on human rights in the communist state, the State Department also said thousands of people had fled their homes in recent years.

Highlighting "disastrous agricultural policies," the report said: "Since 1995 nearly annual droughts and floods have destroyed crops and ruined agricultural land, and hunger and malnutrition have been widespread.

"Famine has caused internal dislocation, widespread malnutrition, and approximately a million deaths from starvation and related diseases." The report did not give a source for the figures, AFP reported.