Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon says North Korea could face an unprecedented economic crisis amid strengthening international sanctions on the regime.

Speaking to overseas members of the National Unification Advisory Council in Seoul on Monday, Cho said the situation in the North may become more dire than the severe food shortage it suffered in the mid-1990s following the death of its founding leader Kim Il Sung.

At that time, stringent domestic policies issued by Pyongyang and a famine resulted in what is known as the “Arduous March,” which led to widespread suffering and the deaths of some two million people.

Minister Cho based his prediction on the UN sanctions resolution adopted against the regime in response to its sixth nuclear test. Cho said those sanctions combined with separate U.S. sanctions will affect 90 percent of the North's annual exports of about three billion dollars.