NKorea still silent on SKorea's food aid offer

North Korea has still not responded to the South's offer of 10,000 tonnes of corn, Seoul said Tuesday, amid news reports Pyongyang had asked for ten times as much food aid.

"As of Tuesday morning, there has been no official response from Pyongyang," unification ministry spokesman Chun Hae-Sung told journalists, eight days after the aid was announced.

South Korea's offer of the corn worth some 3.4 million dollars, plus 20 tonnes of milk powder and medicine, would be the first government aid to its neighbour for almost two years.

Media reports have said the North asked for a 100,000-tonne rice shipment when the two sides held working-level talks on October 16. The ministry has denied any specific amount was mentioned.

Experts say North Korea's chronic food shortages are likely to worsen in the coming year as its rice and corn harvests have been damaged by bad weather.

Under previous liberal governments Seoul sent around 400,000 tonnes of rice and 300,000 tonnes of fertiliser a year across the border.

But shipments stopped after a conservative Seoul government took office and linked major aid to progress on nuclear disarmament, sparking a furious response from Pyongyang.

Hong Sang-Young, director of civilian aid group the Korean Sharing Movement, said Pyongyang would find the South's latest offer too small compared with past shipments.

"It must be in agony over whether to accept it or not. It may find the 10,000 tonnes of corn too tiny to start with under the current government," Hong told AFP.

"At the same time, it may see it awkward to turn it down outright as it is on the receiving end of humanitarian aid."