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SEOUL - NORTH Korea will face major food shortages next year after bad weather and fertiliser shortages hit this year's harvest, a South Korean researcher said on Monday.
The communist state's total grain production is estimated at 4.01 million tons this year, down 10.5 per cent from last year's 4.48 million tons, Mr Kim Tae-Hun of the state-run Rural Development Administration told AFP.
Rice production dropped 19.1 per cent to 1.53 million tons while corn fell 9.2 per cent to 1.59 million tons, he said.
The harvest was badly damaged by torrential rains and floods in August, a typhoon in September and lack of fertiliser, he said.
'Foreign aid to North Korea is inevitable as this year's bad harvest is certain to aggravate its food shortage,' he said, estimating its annual grain needs at 6.5 million tons.
Last August the UN's World Food Programme estimated floods had damaged more than 20 per cent of the rice crop and 15 per cent of corn fields.
Even before the floods the country faced a food shortfall this year of one million tonnes.
North Korea suffered famine in the mid to late 1990s which killed hundreds of thousands, and still relies on foreign aid to help feed its 23 million people.
The clearing of hillsides to create more cropland is mainly to blame for frequent flooding. -- AFP
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