"The harvest is starting to come in but it's likely that by the end of the year and early next year there will be food shortages," said Glyn Ford, a former British member of the European Parliament.

"This will be the poorest harvest in three to four years. I think it will be regional suffering rather than across the whole country."

Ford, who said he had visited the secretive, impoverished nation more than 20 times, expected cities in the northeast to be hardest hit due to the general lack of agricultural production in that region.

"It's likely those kind of places are going to be suffering worse," he told foreign reporters.

Ford's four-day trip, which ended Tuesday, was organised by a think-tank of which he is a member and included meetings with some officials from the ruling Korean Workers Party.

Ford said he noticed greater austerity in the capital Pyongyang compared with previous visits.

In the past two years, Ford said he had seen people in stores selling 40,000-dollar watches and dining in Western-style restaurants, but a botched currency revaluation last November appears to have hit the economy hard.

"There is less conspicuous consumption than there was 12 months ago," he said.

Ford said he believed the recent visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il to China was aimed at giving Chinese President Hu Jintao "advance notice" of the country's leadership succession plans.

Ford said he expected to see "significant changes" to senior positions at a rare meeting of key delegates this month, but he cast doubt on Kim Jong-Il anointing his youngest son, Kim Jong-Un, as his successor just yet.

"I'm not expecting any announcement on who is going to be the next leader but I am expecting Kim Jong-Un to be given positions within the party and possibly later on within the ministries and maybe even within the military," Ford said.

"I see them putting things in place for a succession," Ford said.

During his visit, Ford said he toured a glass factory, an apple orchard and what North Korea claimed was the world's largest ostrich farm.

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