Seoul - Thanks to a shipment of US grain the UN World Food Programme (WFP) can quadruple its food aid distribution in North Korea, the organization said in a statement Monday from Pyongyang.

A US ship with 37,000 tons grain reached the western port of Nampo on Sunday, the first instalment of 500,000 ton of food promised by Washington to the communist state earlier this year.

The shipment will allow the WFP to expand its programme from the current 1.2 million people to the estimated 5 million that will need food aid this year. North Korea's population is 23 million.

Though the US aid is not connected to the ongoing nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang, the shipment, however, arrived just days after Pyongyang delivered its delayed nuclear declaration and blew up a cooling tower at its main reactor site.

The WFP had warned that North Korea may face its worst food crisis in years due to floods last summer that resulted in a more than 1.5 million tons cereal shortage and rising international prices. The short fall has already forced a surge in food prices. (dpa)