EU clears £9 million in food aid for North Korea

"The purpose of this aid package is to save the lives of at least 650,000 people who could otherwise die from lack of food," European Union Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement.

"Our experts saw severely malnourished children in hospitals and nurseries where no treatment was available."

The package targets children under five who have already been hospitalised with severe malnutrition.

Children in residential care will also be fed, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women, hospital patients and the elderly, the Commission said.

More than 6 million people are in urgent need of outside assistance, according to a United Nations report issued in March.

However, the measures will be strictly monitored from the point of delivery of the food aid at the ports to recipients, the Commission said.

"If at any stage we discover that the aid is being diverted from its intended recipients then the Commission will not hesitate to end its humanitarian intervention," said Georgieva.

International sanctions, a tough conservative leader in South Korea and a wary U.S. administration have meant a substantial decline in food aid from traditional donors to the secretive state.

The European Commission spent 35 million euros on long-term nutrition projects in North Korea between 2007 and 2010.

(Reporting by Ben Deighton, additional reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek, editing by Alastair Macdonald)