The Washington Times reports that North Korea has announced that it will expel U.N. aid workers, claiming that their help is no longer needed:

The announcement follows reports of a North Korean crackdown on defections, suspected dissenters, and foreign cell phones and videotapes, which are increasingly penetrating North Korea's closed society. Yesterday, a Japanese TV network aired video of the public executions of eleven North Koreans for opposing the regime and aiding defectors. North Korea may perceive foreign aid workers as a threat to the wall of secrecy and isolation the regime has built between its citizens and the outside world.

Sources familiar with the issue said the number of international staffers present in the country, including nongovernmental aid groups, has worried Pyongyang for some time. "There's no need for [OCHA] to stay ... once ongoing projects are finished," a North Korean diplomatic source said on the condition of anonymity. "We need assistance, but not humanitarian. It should be development assistance such as machinery for agriculture," the source said. Mr. Egeland said he was still hopeful he could persuade Pyongyang not to close the OCHA office. "In our view the humanitarian crisis is continuing. Still [there's] a great shortage of food and there's a great shortage of medicines," he said.

The World Food Program reports that 36% of North Koreans are undernourished, that 57% do not get enough to keep them healthy, and currently targets 6.5 million North Koreans (out of a total population of 22.4 million) for food aid. North Korea recently reduced its food rations to 250 grams per person per day, the equivalent of two medium-sized potatoes.