New Zealand will provide half a million dollars to the United Nations to help North Korea which is facing a food shortage.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters, who visited the politically isolated country last November, said North Korea was facing the most severe food shortages since famine years in the 1990s.

"Food prices have tripled in the past year due to the destruction of a significant proportion of the country's crops in August 2007 floods and high global food prices," Mr Peters said.

"The (UN) World Food Programme is the only major international agency addressing the consequences of the food shortage in North Korea."

New Zealand previously gave $500,000 via the Red Cross after last year's floods.

Mr Peters' trip to North Korea was a rare visit by any foreign minister, and the first by a New Zealand foreign minister since North Korea was established as a country in 1945.

New Zealand established diplomatic relations with North Korea in 2001.