New York - More than 6 million North Koreans have been impacted by successive poor harvests and soaring food prices, which may presage another famine, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said Wednesday.

An estimated 1.2 million of North Korea's 24-million population have been receiving food assistance from WFP. Nearly 6.4 million people are experiencing the threat of famine for the first time in a decade, a UN survey revealed.

"Millions of vulnerable North Koreans are at risk of slipping towards precarious hunger levels," said Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the WFP representative in North Korea.

Vienna  - UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohammed ElBaradei wants the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to play more than an advisory role in verifying North Korea's nuclear programme, diplomats close to the agency said Friday.

In late June, Pyonyang handed over a declaration of its nuclear programme and materials to be verified by the six parties involved in the denuclearization of North Korea.

On July 12, the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan agreed with North Korea to verification measures such as visits to facilities and interviews with North Korean specialists, with details still needing to be worked out.

Hanoi  - North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun is to visit Vietnam Saturday on his way home from a south-east Asian security forum in Singapore, Vietnam's government announced Thursday.

Vietnamese government spokesman Le Dung said Pak was to meet with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem Saturday to discuss "the implementation of agreements reached at high-ranking levels to promote traditional relations between the two countries."

Singapore - North Korea signed on Thursday a non-aggression pact with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as Asia's main security forum pressed for full denuclearization of the hermetic state.

North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun inked the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation following the annual meetings of the 27-country ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

While delegates watched, Pak signed the document and turned it over to Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo, the outgoing ASEAN chairman.

Singapore - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and five other foreign ministers were set to meet in Singapore for the first time on Wednesday in an unofficial gathering focusing on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

The talks are focused on setting up a mechanism to verify North Korea's nuclear declaration turned over last month.

Officials, including Rice who will be meeting North Korea's foreign minister for the first time, have played down any chance of a breakthrough.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said he hoped the meeting would be very good "for advancing the agenda" and pushing forward progress in the six-party talks.

Washington - Iran and North Korea remain part of the "axis of evil" despite diplomatic overtures by the United States aimed at resolving disputes over both regime's nuclear programmes, the White House said Monday.

"Until they give up their nuclear weapons programmes completely and verifiably, I think that we would keep them in the same category," spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

US President George W Bush coined the phrase "axis of evil" during his 2002 State of the Union address to character the two countries along with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, all of which had links to terrorism while being suspected of pursuing weapons of mass destruction. Over the years, US officials have stopped using the terminology.