India has contributed $1 million to the World Food Programme for its humanitarian activities in North Korea, the UN agency's monthly report showed Tuesday, as the impoverished North struggles to cope with chronic food shortages.

"WFP has intensified the South-South and Triangular cooperation as an avenue to enhance support to the DPRK and has received a contribution from the Government of India of $1 million for its in-country operations," the report said. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

South-South cooperation is a broad framework of collaboration involving two or more developing countries and triangular cooperation refers to collaboration in which traditional donor countries and multilateral organizations facilitate such South-South initiatives.

North Korea received 1,905 tons of food aid from the WFP in September, up from 1,425 tons provided a month earlier. A total of 584,800 people received aid across North Korea in September.

In May, the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization reported that the North's crop output last year hit the lowest level since 2008, with an estimated 10 million people, or about 40 percent of its population, in urgent need of food.

South Korea planned to provide 50,000 tons of rice to the North via the WFP to help Pyongyang address the food situation, but the North has refused to accept it. (Yonhap)