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North Korea is expected to suffer from an acute food shortage next year and could face widespread famine as severe as that it suffered in the mid-1990s in the wake of devastating floods this year, a South Korean state-run research institute warned Thursday. The floods are likely to cut North Korea's autumn agricultural output by as much as 500,000 tons, nearly a tenth of the country's "minimum demand" for grains, said Kwon Tae-jin, a senior researcher at the Korea Rural Economic Institute.

Overall food shortages in North Korea, which is still recovering from the famine in the mid-1990s, are believed to reach about 1.4 million tons, compared with the country's grain consumption of 5.2 million tons, the researcher said.

"If no special measures are taken, North Korea's food shortage will likely be at a similar level to that of the mid-1990s," Kwon said in a report published by Hyundai Economic Research Institute, a private economic think-tank.

Various estimates have shown that nearly two million people died from food shortages and related illness since 1994 in North Korea, which has suffered from a series of natural disasters along with economic mismanagement.

Last year, North Korea asked international aid groups to end food aid it received since the mid-1990s. However, this year's floods prompted North Korea to seek international food aid again, underscoring the seriousness of the flood-related damages.

In mid-July, the foods left at least 549 people dead and 295 missing, North Korea's state media reported. This year's floods are likely to cost North Korea a total of US$275 million in lost agricultural production and repair spending, Kwon said. Since the floods, the South Korean government and the World Food Program have supplied some 350,000 tons of food to North Korea, the researcher said.

South Korean officials said the United States and Japan were also considering offering food aid to North Korea, in a sign of easing tension as Pyongyang is taking steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea shut down its Yongbyon reactor in July, under a February accord in international talks aimed at diplomatically persuading Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambition. Early this month, North Korea reiterated its commitment to disable the reactor and other nuclear facilities by the end of this year.

With the nuclear issue showing clear signs of progress, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, in their Oct. 2-4 summit meetings, agreed to work together to pursue a peace treaty on the Korean peninsula.

The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 Korean War ended with a cease-fire.

SEOUL, Oct. 18 (Yonhap)