North Korea's present system has proved to be uncertain in the past and at times collapsed entirely, such as in the famine that gripped the country in the mid-1990s and contributed to the deaths of as many as 3.5 million people from starvation. Other reports from North Korea have put the amount that farmers will be able to sell privately as high as 70 per cent. Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, two workers at a farm south of Pyongyang said they were told about the new rules last month and they should take effect with this year's upcoming full harvest. "We expect a good harvest this year," said O Yong Ae, who works at Migok Cooperative Farm in South Hwanghae Province, in southwestern North Korea, among the region's largest and most productive farms. I'm happy because we can keep the crops we worked so hard to grow.