North Korea has been sending workers to renovate soccer stadiums in South Africa and lumberjacks to Mongolia as part of efforts to earn foreign currency.

North Koreans took part in the construction work to upgrade the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg and the newly-built Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, to be used for the FIFA World Cup in June, said a source close to North Korean issues yesterday.

North Korean workers were also involved in logging in Mongolia, he said.

"North Korea has sent large numbers of workers to construction sites in the Middle East and lumberjacks to Russia although we do not have any exact figures on how many," Seoul's Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said.

"We heard that they have recently made inroads into Africa as well. Because it is impossible for individuals in the North Korean society to arrange something like this for themselves, we assume that the Pyongyang government is organizing the dispatches."

North Korea is suffering from drastically reduced income from arms exports and suspension of South Korean tours, in addition to a chronic shortage of food and a failed currency redenomination measure.

The price of rice, often used as the barometer of the North's market prices, increased nearly 60-fold in the past three months after the currency reform on Nov. 30.

Experts attribute the sharp rise to inflation, devaluation of the new notes and dwindling trade between China and North Korea.

Rice in Pyongyang is now traded at 1,300 won (130,000 won in old notes) per kilogram, up from 2,200 won in old notes just days before the redenomination measure, according to Daily NK, an internet-based news outlet.

The North has exchanged old 100-won notes for new 1-won bills since the currency reform measure.