N Korea raises the stakes in nuclear standoff

In a new escalation of the crisis over its nuclear ambitions, North Korea threatened yesterday to remove United Nations seals and surveillance cameras from its nuclear facilities without waiting for the UN to do so.

While the West threatens war against Iraq, in part to prevent Saddam Hussein's regime developing nuclear weapons, North Korea is pressing towards a confrontation with the international community over its own nuclear activities. The sale of its missiles to unstable parts of the world was also highlighted last week when a shipment of Scuds to Yemen was intercepted at sea. Washington reluctantly allowed the missiles through after concluding that international law did not prevent the sale.

On Thursday, Pyongyang declared that it would reactivate its nuclear power programme, including firing up a mothballed atomic plant which US intelligence believes can make weapons-grade plutonium. In a letter to the UN's nuclear watchdog, the Inter- national Atomic Energy Agency, the North Koreans asked the IAEA to remove the seals and surveillance cameras at its nuclear facilities, placed there in 1994 to monitor an agreement with the US which froze their nuclear development.

The IAEA asked it to act with restraint and co-operate with inspections, but yesterday Kim Jong Il's secretive regime sent the agency another letter, demanding the removal "at the earliest possible date". It went on: "If the IAEA fails to expeditiously take measures to meet our request, we will take necessary measures unilaterally."

The stand-off began in October, when the North Koreans confirmed US intelligence reports of a uranium-enriching programme, violating the 1994 agreement. That revelation led to the suspension of supplies of free heavy fuel oil agreed in return for a freeze of its nuclear programme.

The loss of the fuel supplies means that many of the 23 million people of the isolated rogue state – where there are already pockets of starvation – face an extremely punishing winter. Now the UN World Food Programme, which has been sending food to millions of North Koreans, has warned that it may be forced to stop providing aid within a few months because international donations are drying up.

The WFP has this year already stopped distributing to 3 million people – mostly women and children who now face severe malnutrition – but says it may have to halt operations altogether by 1 April. It has launched an appeal for 511,000 tonnes of food for next year, but has so far only got a fraction of that amount – 35,000 tonnes – as the three major donors, the US, Japan and South Korea, have so far held back.

Last year Japan contributed 500,000 tonnes but gave nothing to the WFP's North Korea operation this year because of a row with Pyongyang over the kidnapping of Japanese civilians by the North Korean secret services two decades ago. The US, which gave about a third of the WFP's food deliveries this year, is also now imposing restrictions. Washing- ton denies allegations that is attempting to use hunger as a political pressure tactic.

This month, the WFP's executive director, James Morris, told the UN Security Council that the WFP could be compelled to halt its work in North Korea by 1 April if international support was not forthcoming. Yesterday that little-reported warning was repeated by a WFP spokesman in Beijing, Gerald Bourke: "We are resourced up until the end of January, but would have to spread it very thinly after that."

The human cost of the WFP's withdrawal could be very severe. The Korean government distribution system provides no more than 270g of food per person per day – 45 per cent of minimum needs.