The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations forecast North Korea will suffer worsened food shortages in the third quarter, the Radio Free Asia reported Saturday.

In its quarterly Early Warning Early Action food security and agriculture report, the FAO reportedly placed North Korea among nine countries at "high risk" of food crises.

The report picked drought and African swine fever virus as major factors that threaten the North's food security.

The eight other high-risk countries are Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Sudan, Yemen, South Sudan, Congo and Cameroon.

In a report released in May, the FAO and the World Food Program said North Korea's crop output this year is expected to hit the lowest level in the past decade, with an estimated 10.1 million people, or about 40 percent of the total population, in urgent need of food aid. (Yonhap)