North Korea has stepped up a crackdown on soldiers in a northeastern city who are stealing from locals because they cannot survive on their food rations, a report said Wednesday.

Military police have been stationed everywhere in the streets of Hyesan city to check the identification of soldiers, said the Daily NK, a Seoul-based online newspaper run by defectors.

North Korean soldiers are supposed to receive about 800 grams (28 ounces) of food per day in rations but this has shrunk to about 540 grams, it said.

"They are hungry and... they are heading for local farms to steal (food)," Daily NK said, citing a source in Hyesan.

"The weather is getting colder and the number of soldiers deserting their posts is rising."

Since June a military driver training school in Hyesan has handed out only about 170 grams of food. Hungry soldiers have also been stealing clothes, shoes and other items from homes in broad daylight to sell in the market, it said.

The North has a Songun (army first) policy which prioritises military welfare. But there have been several reports that soldiers are suffering from food shortages along with civilians.

The country was hit by famine in the 1990s which killed hundreds of thousands and has relied partly on international food aid ever since.

But donations to UN programmes have dwindled due to international irritation at the North's missile and nuclear programmes. Seoul suspended its annual shipment of rice and fertiliser in 2008.

The North this year asked the United States and other nations for food aid, but there are differences over its requirements.

United Nations agencies have said that some six million people in the country urgently need food.

But some South Korean officials are sceptical, saying North Korea wants to stockpile supplies for handouts to mark the 100th birth anniversary next year of founder Kim Il-Sung.

Korean envoys hold nuclear talks in Beijing
Beijing (AFP) Sept 21, 2011 - The chief nuclear envoys for North and South Korea met in Beijing on Wednesday to try to revive international nuclear disarmament talks, with little hope of any early breakthroughs.

The one-day meeting at a private members' club in the centre of the Chinese capital is the second round of talks between the South's Wi Sung-Lac and his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-Ho in two months.

They aim to pave the way for a resumption of full six-party negotiations on the North's nuclear disarmament, a process which began back in 2003 and groups the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia.

North Korea formally abandoned the six-nation forum in April 2009, a month before staging a second nuclear test which brought worldwide condemnation and fresh United Nations sanctions.

Now all sides say they want to start talking again, especially after Pyongyang's disclosure last November of a uranium enrichment programme which could give it a second way to make atomic weapons.

But while the North wants six-party talks without preconditions, South Korea and the United States say it must show seriousness about giving up its nuclear arsenal in return for economic, diplomatic and security benefits.

South Korea's Wi, who has said in the past it was "too ambitious" to expect the talks to restart this autumn, said Wednesday's discussions would include the preconditions the North must meet.

"I will discuss a wide range of issues concerning denuclearisation, including the pre-steps," he told AFP during a midday break in the talks.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Wi would demand that North Korea stop its uranium enrichment programme before the negotiations could resume, citing a senior Seoul diplomat.

The meeting in Beijing comes after Wi and Ri held surprise talks on the Indonesian island of Bali in July, which were followed by a US-North Korean meeting in New York.

China, which hosts the international forum, expressed hopes Wednesday's meeting would prove fruitful.

"We support dialogue between North and South Korea and we hope the dialogue can produce outcomes so as to promote the six party talks process," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told journalists at a regular briefing.

"We hope relevant parties meet each other half way so as to create the conditions for the early resumption of six-party talks."

But expert Kim Dalchoong said a speedy breakthrough was unlikely.

"The parties won't jump into making decisions to resume six party talks. They will need more rounds of serious discussions," Kim, professor of political science at Seoul's Yonsei University, told AFP in Beijing.

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