Korean relations. The government was considering supplying fertiliser by land to the impoverished North, the report said. North Korea requested 500,000 tonnes of fertiliser from the South earlier this year, but Seoul has put off a decision on whether to grant the assistance. The request for larger-than-usual fertiliser aid indicates the hunger-stricken North is anticipating greater trouble feeding its 23 million people, analysts have said. Dialogue between high-ranking officials has stalled since July last year, when Pyongyang was angered by a secret airlift of more than 460 North Korean refugees from Vietnam. Political and commercial ties between the two Koreas, which are technically at war under a truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean war, had been warming.
