The World Food Program is expected to request within the next ten days that South Korea offer food aid to the North.

A WFP spokesman told Radio Free Asia that his agency is fine-tuning a request for emergency food aid to the North.

The U.N. food agency plans to launch a 15-month, 580-million U.S. dollar aid program to help feed the people of North Korea starting in September.

An official with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said North Korea is expected to produce about three-point-five million tons of crops this year.