A top United Nations official who recently visited North Korea is calling for international food aid for the impoverished country.

CNN's Internet edition cited U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe as saying that a third of North Koreans are in dire need of food.

In the interview with CNN, Pascoe said the decision whether to provide food aid should not be argued in a political way.

According to Pascoe, the U.N., already providing over five percent of the North Korean population with some form of nutritional support, needs more assistance from the cash-strapped international body in order to feed some 33 percent of the population that the World Food Program estimates is going hungry.

Pascoe dismissed concerns that U.N. food aid is not going to those who need it most, saying that U.N. staffers are certain that the food is going to those who need it most.

Pascoe visited the North earlier this month as an envoy of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.