By Thin Lei Win

BANGKOK, March 20 (AlertNet) - A coalition of five U.S. aid agencies has been told to stop its food aid programme for 900,000 people in North Korea, two months before it was due to be completed, in a further sign of the deteriorating relationship between the two countries.

On Tuesday, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the reclusive North had informed Washington it would not accept further U.S. food assistance, which would have amounted to about 330,000 tonnes before the end of May.

The United States and North Korea agreed last May that Washington would provide 500,000 metric tonnes in food aid over a 12-month period. Wood said the United States had so far delivered 169,000 metric tonnes.

"We are saddened by this decision, but are very proud of what the programme has accomplished," said Mercy Corps, World Vision, Samaritan's Purse, Global Resources Services and Christian Friends of Korea in a joint statement.

"Working closely with our North Korean partners, we have ensured that food reached almost one million vulnerable children, pregnant and nursing mothers, and the elderly," the groups said.

The programme was scheduled to run until May but the team working on it will leave the country by the end of March.

The agencies - all of whom have worked in North Korea for over a decade - have been distributing food aid from Washington in two north western provinces of Chagan and North Pyogan, working closely with local partners.

They said they remained committed to providing assistance in North Korea, and would continue individual programmes focusing on health, water, sanitation and agriculture.

WFP SCALES BACK

Under last year's agreement, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) was to distribute 400,000 tonnes or four-fifths of the aid, and the partnership led by Mercy Corps was to handle the rest.

A WFP spokesperson told the Financial Times this week the organisation has scaled back its food assistance activities in North Korea due to a funding shortfall, adding that progress had been "slower than we hoped" on providing aid.

"WFP hopes that the U.S. will review the humanitarian situation and that food shipments will resume soon," the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

WFP says its current operation is only 15 percent of planned levels, with two million people receiving food assistance instead of 6.2 million.

The Financial Times also reports that Pyongyang has told Washington it will kick out WFP staff unless the United States drops a demand the workers include Korean speakers - intended to stop aid being siphoned off by the military. Under last year's deal, Pyongyang agreed to allow aid agencies to include Korean speakers in their missions.

The aid row has erupted as North Korea enters the critical "lean season" when food stocks from the previous year's harvest rapidly run low. In some regions, particularly the northeast, high levels of malnutrition are anticipated, WFP says.

Pyongyang's decision to refuse further aid from Washington comes at a time when the two sides are at loggerheads over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme. Pyongyang recently lashed out at the U.S. and South Korea for conducting annual joint military exercises, and North Korea is also thought to be preparing the launch of a missile with the potential to reach U.S. territory.