North Korea faces a serious food shortage because the country probably won't meet its agricultural production target for this year, the World Food Program warned Tuesday. «My sense is that we have a crisis in front of us that requires the international community to respond and provide resources so that we can do our work,» ap quoted James T. Morris, executive director of the U.N. agency, as saying. North Korea has relied on foreign aid to feed its 23 million people since disclosing in the mid-1990s that its government-run farm system had collapsed. A resulting famine is believed to have killed some 2 million people. The WFP tries to feed about 6.5 million North Koreans _ more than a quarter of the population. Morris said the communist country had forecast growth of 3 percent in farm production this year, a figure the agency doubts will be achieved. «Our conversations with people throughout the country suggest that's not likely to materialize,» Morris said. «Earlier this year, the price of maize and wheat was increasing rapidly.» Morris said rising food prices, the government's limited experiments with market reforms as well as reduced aid from overseas have all aggravated the food crisis in North Korea. --mor 1244 Local Time 0944 GMT
