Funding problems led to the UN’s World Food Programme ending the scheme last month, an official has confirmed with Kim Jong-un’s weapons programme leading to international condemnation.

Cutting the programme will spark fears of malnutrition among the impoverished population.

Lim Hyoung-joon, head of WFP Korea, said: “We need an additional $14.6 million to reach the goal.

“Once we secure the money, WFP will provide the aid to those kindergarteners.”

A programme that provides food aid to pregnant and nursing women and children younger than two will continue at a cost of $25million (£18.6million) with these groups judged to be at a higher risk.

The decision was made to cut the programme feeding nursery children, under the age of five, when funding was squeezed.

A recent World Hunger Index report has found that two in five North Koreans are suffering from malnutrition while Kim Jong-un lives a lavish lifestyle and spends huge sums on his suicidal pursuit of nuclear weapons.

However, it is feared that despite the high human cost of sanctions to his people the despot is unlikely to return to the negotiating table anytime soon.

North Korea expert Rahul Pathak believes the country’s high threshold for pain will keep them from buckling under international pressure and sanctions.

He noted that in the 1990s as many as two million people are thought to have died during in a famine under the dictatorship.

Pyongyang is expected to continue to pursue a nuclear-armed missile capable of striking the US at the expense of its ordinary citizens.

Mr Pathak said: “Their thinking is and they're quite convinced about it, that the US will respect you only if you have the ability to hurt the US back.”

North Korea defector Oh Chong Song exposed the brutal impact of poverty on Kim’s citizens as he fought for his life after he escaped from the prison state.

Mr Oh, a soldier guarding the North-South border, was shot five times by his fellow North Korean soldiers as he made his dash for freedom across the border.

He was airlifted to freedom by a US Black Hawk helicopter, coming close to death during the long ride to a hospital, where a 10 inch parasite was removed from his intestine.

Surgeon Lee Cook-Jong said: “His vital signs were so unstable, he was dying of low blood pressure, he was dying of shock.

“He was like a broken jar. We couldn't put enough blood into him.”

Several other parasites were found in his system. They are usually symptomatic of the poor sanitary condition.