North Korea, going through "a very dire period" before the harvest season, will not reject aid from South Korea despite recent political chills, the World Food Program's (WFP) North Korea director said Sunday.

"The DPRK is currently going through an agricultural lean season" just before harvest time, Jean-Pierre de Margerie said in an email interview with Yonhap News Agency, calling the North by its official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "WFP estimates that this is a very dire period in terms of food security."

The United Nations aid agency says North Korea will slip back to famine unless given aid worth about US$500 million in the next 15 months and has formally asked South Korea to contribute US$60 million for its campaign in North Korea.

South Korea has yet to respond to the appeal. Seoul suspended direct shipments of food to the North after the conservative Lee Myung-bak government took office in February on a pledge to pursue inter-Korean relations on a reciprocal basis.

The Lee government later proposed talks with the North to send 50,000 tons of corn through the WFP, but the North has not responded to the offer amid chilled ties between the two nations.

Margerie ruled out any possibility that Pyongyang would reject Seoul's aid, calling on South Korea to act on the offer.