In this Sept. 12, 2012 photo, ears of field corn lay in piles along a roadside during the autumn corn harvest on a farm on the edge of Kaesong, North Korea. It has been a tough year for North Korea's farmers, who grappled with an extended dry spell in the spring, followed by heavy rains from a series of summer storms and typhoon. The U.N. is launching a field mission across North Korea to gauge the state of the food situation. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)