The strong demand for biofuel has sharply boosted the international price of corn, which could impact available stocks for starving North Koreans, civic activists say.
During the past 12 months, the global price of corn has doubled due to the wholesale diversion of grain crops to bio-fuel.
In the first four months of this year, North Korea paid about $180 per ton of corn imports, up 28.6 percent from the same period a year ago, according to Seoul's state-run Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency.
Due to rising corn prices, the UN World Food Program halved the amount of its corn aid to North Korea to 24,000 tons from the initially requested 50,000 tons, increasing instead the amount of beans, flour and powdered milk.
The price of corn is expected to rise, as 30 percent of next year's grain harvest, which comes from the United States will go straight to an ethanol distillery, which will in turn lead to tighter supplies. The U.S. supplies more than two thirds of the world's grain imports.
"The international push to use bio-ethanol as an alternative energy source is likely to deal a serious blow to North Korea," said World Vision, an international relief agency.
Relief activists say the bio-fuel boom has triggered direct competition for grain among the 800 million people who own automobiles and the world's 2 billion poorest people. They insisted the biofuel boom could cost lives in North Korea and other famine-hit countries.
Corn is a staple food in North Korea due to the steadily decreasing rice harvests. The North produced about 4 million tons of grain last year, including nearly 2 million tons of corn, 1.6 million tons of rice, and 230,000 tons of potato.
The WFP estimates that North Korea will be 900,000 tons short of the food needed to feed its citizens this year.
