The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will send an inspection team to North Korea in April or May of next year in an effort to assess crop yields in the communist country for the first time in a year and a half.

According to Voice of America, the four-member team will inspect the North’s agricultural productivity and crop yields.

The U.N.’s two food agencies --- the FAO and the World Food Program --- resumed their inspections of North Korea’s crop yields in the fall of last year after a four-year hiatus.

The inspections were again put on hold by the North before the start of this year.

North Korea has, over the course of the last two decades, suffered through major food crises due to crop shortages that have resulted from flood damage and other factors.