Radio Free Asia says that incidents of groups of North Koreans stealing crops from farms located in border regions with China are becoming more frequent in recent days.

Citing a Chinese source, the U.S. broadcaster said that as food shortages worsen in the North, more and more North Koreans are crossing the border to steal food in areas near the Tumen River.

News outlets on North Korea say that North Korean escapees have bribed officials to cross the border in the past, but that these days people are crossing the border recklessly due to the intolerable famine.

China is reportedly strengthening border patrols and the Chinese people are also guarding their fields with guns and hunting dogs.

News reports say that over 200 North Koreans were caught stealing in China and sent home in the past four months and that 30 are detained in Chinese prisons.