UN Calls for More Aid to Help North Korea Reform

Fledgling economic reforms in North Korea risk being undermined by reduced international aid to the communist state, according to the UN's top humanitarian envoy to Pyongyang.

Masood Hyder, UN humanitarian co-ordinator in North Korea, said there were signs of change in the world's most totalitarian state but warned the process needed support from the international community.

He estimated that 1m people had been left short of food as a result of North Korea's shift towards a market economy and said reforms might be reversed if aid was not provided.

"It would be unfair to [cut aid] now just at the time when change is beginning to happen," said Mr Hyder, during a visit to Seoul.

Aid to poverty-stricken North Korea has dipped sharply over recent months, amid an international dispute about the country's nuclear weapons programme.

Most donor nations claim politics plays no part in their allocation of humanitarian assistance but many analysts believe the reduced aid is part of efforts to put pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear activities.

The prospects of an early resolution to the nuclear crisis receded on Wednesday when reports in the US suggested six-party talks about the issue might be delayed until the new year.

The US, China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas were expected to meet in Beijing later this month, following their first, inconclusive meeting in August.

However, US officials were quoted as saying the process was being held up by North Korean intransigence.

Washington is prepared to offer a written pledge not to attack North Korea in return for the state abandoning its nuclear programme. But Pyongyang is reportedly balking at US demands for inspectors to be allowed to monitor its disarmament.

South Korea's foreign ministry on Wednesday said it remained unclear whether talks would take place this year but western diplomats in Seoul confirmed that January or February was looking more likely.

Mr Hyder warned that North Korea could face a humanitarian disaster next year if humanitarian assistance to the state fell further. So far this year, the UN World Food Programme has received only 70 per cent of what it needed to feed the 6m people that qualify for assistance.

The US has continued to donate food to North Korea, albeit with a reduced amount, but Japan, once a large donor, has not made any contribution for two years.

Mr Hyder said economic reforms had created a new category of hungry people who were struggling to pay rising food prices in North Korea's emerging market system.

Pyongyang sharply increased wages and prices in July 2002 in a first step towards liberalisation of the country's command economy.

Mr Hyder said the reforms risked failure unless a humanitarian safety net was provided for the victims of change, such as factory workers being laid off as managers were ordered to match supply with demand.

Despite the teething problems, Mr Hyder said it was too early to declare the reforms a failure. He cited the growing number of market stalls and small enterprises springing-up in Pyongyang as evidence of increased economic vitality.