"Since mid-April, special food rations for Pyongyang residents have been suspended, and they are getting increasingly anxious," a North Korean official involved in trade with China said. He said food rations for people on the outskirts of Pyongyang had been cut off since the start of the year. This is the first time since the height of the reclusive country's food crisis in 1998 that residents in the capital have had their rations cut.

Food prices have skyrocketed as a result, with 1 kg of white rice going in the markets for W1,000 (US$1) -- nearly half the wages of ordinary North Korean laborers, who make around W2,500 a month.

North Korean authorities have tended to supply rations, however meager, to Pyongyang residents no matter how difficult the situation. But now they are only available to high-ranking government and party officials, the Ministry of the Protection of State Security and police.

One high-ranking defector said, "During the food crisis of the mid-1990s it was unprepared ordinary North Koreans who starved to death, but this time losses will be heavier among the privileged and military because ordinary people no longer depend on rations and have got used to difficulty." Dr. Seo Jae-jin of the Korea Institute for National Unification said one reason for the shortage was that international food aid to North Korea has been on hold since the beginning of the year. But he said it was also possible rations were suspended "to eliminate the privileges of Pyongyang residents and end discrimination against people in the provinces."

(englishnews@chosun.com )