EDITORS NOTE: PICTURES TAKEN ON A GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED TOUR FOR REUTERS ALERTNET

A North Korean woman prepares a meal in her house at the Soksa-Ri collective farm in an area damaged by summer floods and typhoons in South Hwanghae province, September 29, 2011. Isolated North Korea has appealed for food aid following the disasters and years of mismanagement. In South Hwanghae province, which traditionally produces about a third of the country's total cereal supply, officials say a savage winter wiped out 65 percent of the barley, wheat and potato crops. Then summer floods and storms destroyed 80 percent of the maize harvest, according to the province's governing People's Committee, and may have an impact on the October rice harvest. Only 30 percent of a U.N. food aid target for North Korea has been met so far. The United States and South Korea, the North's two biggest donors before sanctions, have said they won't resume aid until they are satisfied the military-led communist regime will not divert the aid for its own uses and progress is made on disarmament talks. Picture taken September 29, 2011. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj (NORTH KOREA - Tags: AGRICULTURE SOCIETY POVERTY)