SEOUL, April 5 (Reuters) - South Korea will ship 400,000 tonnes of rice aid to North Korea even if the impoverished state misses an April 14 deadline to shut down its nuclear reactor, a senior official said on Thursday.

A day earlier, China's chief nuclear envoy said it would be difficult for the North to meet the deadline as there was still no resolution to a freeze of offshore funds Pyongyang insists be lifted before it begins the shutdown.

"We will be giving rice as planned," South Korean Vice Unification Minister Shin Eon-sang told reporters.

While progress in ending the North's nuclear programme and aid remained linked, he said "either of them can come half a step earlier".

Millions of North Koreans face hunger and malnutrition from a food shortage of nearly 1 million tonnes, the World Food Programme said late last month.

South Korea has been a major donor of direct food aid to the North, with up to 500,000 tonnes a year.

It suspended aid last year after Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests, resuming fertiliser shipments last week after the North agreed at six-country talks in February to start shutting its nuclear arms programme.

But the shutdown had been delayed while the transfer of $25 million in North Korean funds from a Macau bank remains delayed. North Korea has refused to discuss nuclear disarmament until the transfer is complete.

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