Story highlights The North Korean drought will make it hard to feed its people during the lean season

UN organizations are likely to put out a call for international assistance, analyst says

(CNN) North Korea is heading for its worst drought since 2001, the United Nations has warned, raising the possibility of increased food shortages in the rogue state.

"More rains are urgently needed to avoid significant decreases in the main 2017 cereal production season," a report by the UN Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Thursday.

"Should drought conditions persist, the food security situation is likely to further deteriorate."

North Korea is still recovering from a deadly famine in the late 1990s, and the UN's World Food Programme estimates 70% of the country's 25 million people still don't eat a "sufficiently diverse diet."

Now a prolonged period of dry weather, falling over North Korea's important growing season of April to June, has put their staple crops of rice and maize at risk.

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