The U.N.'s food aid to North Korea has been on the rise in recent months, but its program remains seriously underfunded, a news report said Wednesday.

The World Food Program (WFP) provided North Korea with around 2,300 tons of food assistance last month, only half of its target amount, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA) based in Washington D.C.

It marks a 10-percent increase from 2,075 tons delivered to the communist nation in August.

The number of North Korean kids and pregnant women who received the aid also jumped from about 700,000 to more than 913,000, it added.

The WFP's assistance for the North grew for the third consecutive month since July, but it still suffers a lack of funding, Silke Buhr, the agency's regional public information officer for Asia, told the RFA.

The WFP aimed to offer "nutritional assistance" to 1.8 million North Koreans in need last month, he added.

In 2013, the organization launched a two-year program to help 2.4 million people there. 

However, it has been forced to scale down the project due to low funding, which is apparently attributable to donor fatigue amid the communist nation's continued development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. (Yonhap)