South Korean Red Cross officials crossed the border into North Korea on Wednesday to deliver powered milk for the country, which has suffered from chronic food shortage.

[Kim Young-ja, Vice President, Korea Red Cross]:
"We prepared powered milk for North Korea's vulnerable civilian population such as children and pregnant women. We've been sending the powdered milk since 2003, but couldn't do it last year."

Two trucks made the delivery, carrying 20 tons of powered milk.

Sources say last month North Koreans were starving to death, and unrest was growing due to rising prices.

Food aid to the North, which once totaled about 500,000 tons of rice a year, was suspended by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak due to political tension.

But in October of last year, Lee's government ended its suspension of food aid and pledged to send 10,000 tons of corn across the border.

Some 40,000 North Korean children under five become acutely malnourished each year, UNICEF said in a report last month.

The U.N.'s World Food Program says 6.2 million people in North Korea need food aid, but it is only able to reach 1.5 million, mainly young children and women, due to lack of funds.