North Korea said on Thursday it asked the United Nations to end all humanitarian aid because the country's food production had improved and the United States was politicizing the issue. Reuters reported.

North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon told news agency reporters he made the request to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a meeting on Wednesday, saying a better harvest had eased the humanitarian situation.

"We requested him to end humanitarian assistance by the end of this year," he said. "Particularly the United States attempted to politicize humanitarian assistance, linking it to the human rights issue."

A State Department spokesman strongly rejected suggestions the United States had politicized food aid to North Korea and had tried to link the granting of aid to human rights issues.

"All US decisions are based on three criteria. Firstly on the need of the country involved, secondly on competing needs elsewhere and thirdly on our ability to ensure that the aid gets to people who need it most."

Choe said North Korea would continue to seek development aid from the international community, Development assistance is typically aimed at building infrastructure and facilities to help a country help itself, while humanitarian aid includes food and medical supplies.

Annan expressed understanding for Pyongyang's request, Choe said.

"Humanitarian assistance cannot last too long," Choe said after traveling to New York to address the UN General Assembly. "We have very good farming this year. Our government is prepared to provide the food to all our people."

The North's move means an uncertain future for the largest international food aid agency in the country, the UN World Food Program, which aims to feed 6.5 million of North Korea's most at-risk people among the country's population of 22.5 million.

The program reported recently that while North Korea's severe food shortage had eased with the help of a good harvest of staples this year, international help was still needed.

Without outside donations, the North would not be able to provide food to many children, pregnant women, urban poor and elderly, the UN agency said.

While South Korea has also stepped up its food aid to the North, aid workers said it was distributed with less frequent monitoring than assistance from the World Food Program.

The WFP conducts about 5,000 to 6,000 monitoring visits a year to ensure the food reaches the people who most need it.

The WFP's operation in the North received more than 270,690 tonnes of food this year and expected a further 33,000 tonnes before the end of the year.

North Korea also receives some medicines and vaccines from the World Health Organization and the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, UN officials said.

The impact of the North Korean decision was still unclear, said one UN aid official, who said the world body was still in discussions with Pyongyang.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies September 23, 2005)