1.  North Korea has suffered chronic food shortages for two years.

2.  U.N. and American officials agree that Ethiopia has the potential to erase its chronic food deficit.

3.  Poor harvests, economic collapse and three years of floods and drought, have produced chronic food shortages in North Korea and left it heavily reliant on foreign aid.

4.  A chronic food shortage already has forced the proud communist country to turn to rivals Japan and South Korea for help.

5.  A collapsing post-Cold War economy and two consecutive years of flooding have aggravated chronic food shortages in North Korea.

6.  A severe shortage of fertilizer is reportedly hurting North Korean efforts to increase crop production and ease its chronic food shortage.

7.  A Swiss-based relief agency is building a bakery in North Korea to help ease chronic food shortages.

8.  A U.N. aid convoy arrived Thursday to the besieged northwestern enclave of Bihac, easing but not ending chronic food shortages in the region.

9.  All recent defectors have told of widespread hunger in North Korea, where chronic food problems have been aggravated by devastating floods the past two years.

10.  Analysts say the country was dealing with a chronic food shortfall even before the floods, along with shortages of fuel and other goods.