North Korea's food supply will fall 1.17 million tons short of its 5.48-million-ton demand this year, the Unification Ministry said in a report submitted to the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee.

In December last year, the World Food Programme estimated that the North's food shortage would reach 836,000 tons this year. "The trade volume between the North and China amounted to US$2.78 billion last year, up 41.2 percent from a year earlier," added the ministry.

Meanwhile, last year's inter-Korean trade reached $1.82 billion, up only 1.2 percent from 2007.