The online edition of a British daily is reporting that North Korea has ordered its foreign missions to request food aid from foreign governments.

A diplomatic official who asked not to be named told the “Guardian” that North Korean embassies in some 40 nations have been ordered by Pyongyang to ask governments for food and that they have each been given a quota.

Another official said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had ordered North Korean foreign missions in December of last year to secure as much rice as possible.

The Guardian added that the British Foreign Office had acknowledged that the North Korean Embassy in the U.K. had approached them to ask for food.