North Korea has been knocking on the doors of practically every country except for the poorest African nations since last year asking for food aid, yet according to a senior South Korean official, last year's harvest in the North was among the best in two decades. North Korea watchers say the main reason for the food shortage in the North is hoarding by the government and military.

◆ No Drop in Food Production

According to South Korean government statistics compiled between 1991 and 2009, North Korea had bumper crops in 2005 (4.54 million tons) and 2006 (4.48 million tons). The 2010 crop yield has not been officially announced yet, but the UN Food and Agriculture Organization presumes output last year totaled 4.48 million tons, making it the best harvest in 20 years. North Korea's annual food demand is estimated at around 5 million tons.

"We start to see people starving to death when food output falls below 3.5 million tons," said Nam Sung-wook of the Institute for National Security Strategy. The late Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranking North Korean ever to defect to South Korea, said food output totaled just 2.5 million tons in 1997, when over 1 million North Koreans starved to death.

◆ Hoarding Rice for the Military

In September last year, Grand National Party lawmaker Kim Moo-sung said North Korea has stored 1 million tons of rice for a war. That is enough to feed the country's 24 million people for three months. Early last year, North Korean authorities temporarily alleviated food shortages during the cold months by tapping into the military's food stores, but sources in the North say the regime shut them again after the attacks on the Navy corvette Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island increased tensions with the South.

"Since 1987, North Korea has been setting aside 12 percent of its rice output as emergency supplies in case of war and 10 percent for military consumption," an intelligence official said.