ReliefWeb

SEOUL, May 31 (Reuters) - North Korea on Thursday accused the South of failing to honour a promise to ship it more rice aid as ministerial talks between the two limped into their third day.

South Korea has said that the 400,000 tonnes of rice it agreed to provide would only cross their heavily armed border once Pyongyang honours its own pledge -- at international talks in February -- to start nuclear disarmament.

"The North side raised the issue of the delay in rice aid," South Korean Unification Ministry official, Ko Gyoung-bin, told reporters.

Ko said the North pointed out that it had met its side of the bargain in previous bilateral talks by allowing last week's first train crossing last week over the border since the 1950-53 Korean War, as well as more reunions of families divided by that the war for which a peace treaty has never been signed.

Since the meeting began on Tuesday in the South Korean capital, the two have managed just 2-=BD hours of formal talks.

South Korea proposed the two Koreas open regular train runs across their divided peninsula. Ko said there had been no response yet to that proposal.