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Recent reports from various organizations have warned of a resurgent famine in North Korea, comparable to the "Great Famine" that hit the country in the mid-1990s. Reports have indicated that the "Public Distribution System", North Korea's state food distribution system, has broken down not only in rural areas, but in Pyongyang as well, typically the last area to experience the same hardships felt in the rural counties.

The widespread damage caused from major flooding in 2006 and 2007 has exacerbated the effects of the abnormal weather and low crop yield this season. In addition, North Korea has refused to accept or formally request aid from its neighbor South Korea, ending years of millions of tons worth of unconditional food aid that typically arrives from the South.

The U.N. World Food Programme, one of many organizations predicting a major shortfall in food this year, has reported that, "North Korea faces a looming food and humanitarian crisis after a poor harvest that has caused food prices to skyrocket and supplies to dwindle." The WFP estimates and expects North Korea's annual food deficit to nearly double since last year to 1.83 million tons, leaving nearly 6.5 million people hungry. In the great famine of the 1990s, North Korea suffered from an estimated one to three million deaths out of a population of 23 million.