SEOUL, June 20 (Yonhap) -- A severe dry spell in North Korea is expected to exacerbate chronic food shortages in the poverty-stricken nation where the U.N.'s food agency says 3 million people are in urgent need of food aid, a South Korean expert said Wednesday.
The amount of cereal crops harvested in the June-July season is forecast to sharply drop due to the unusually long drought, said Kwon Tae-jin, a senior researcher at the state-run Korea Rural Economic Institute in Seoul, in a report.





"Because of severe drought, North Korea is expected to run into a big problem in harvesting corn this year," Kwon said, adding it could prompt the price of other crops to rise.