The South Korean government will likely not be able to deliver a shipment of food aid to North Korea by this month as previously planned, Seoul’s Ministry of Unification (MOU) said on Friday.

The news means Seoul may miss a deadline set by unification minister Kim Yeon-chul in mid-June, when he announced plans to send 50,000 metric tons of rice to the DPRK via the World Food Programme (WFP) “without delay” and by the end of September.

Stressing the urgency of the delivery, South Korea at the time warned the food situation in North Korea “could further deteriorate”