The Northeast Asia Foundation for Education and Culture (NAFEC) said it has now set April 2009 as the target date after delays caused by disputes over the North's nuclear programme and by inter-Korean tensions.

The original plan was to open the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) as early as September 2007 but there have been several delays.

"We've reached the conclusion that it is difficult to open it now, in light of the current (political) situation," said Choi Chung-Pyung, secretary general of the South Korean-based foundation.

"We're prepared to open it but the North has hinted that it is not the right time to engage in such a festive event," he told AFP. "The South, while admitting to the advantages of this project, also says the timing is not so favourable."

Inter-Korean ties have been at their lowest ebb since the conservative government of President Lee Myung-Bak, who took office in Seoul in February, rolled back a policy of reconciliation under 10 years of liberal predecessors.

Six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear programme are deadlocked over procedures to verify the North's declaration of its nuclear activities.

The United States, whose support is essential for the university to be equipped with lab facilities and faculty members, is also hesitating to cooperate -- citing the unsettled nuclear issue, Choi added.

"We've set April 2009 as the new target date for opening," Choi said.

He said the foundation hoped the situation would improve when a new US administration takes office next month and the nuclear stand-off eases.

The foundation aims to build an institution that will give the impoverished and isolated communist state the skills to function in the international community.

The initiative came from the North itself. Officials in 2001 approached Kim Chin-Kyung, a US citizen who helped found the Yanbian University of Science and Technology in the northeastern Chinese city of Yanji on behalf of NAFEC.

Kim had been detained for six weeks in North Korea in 1998 and threatened with a death sentence for allegedly spying for the US.

Undeterred by the experience, he accepted the challenge. Pyongyang provided the land while NAFEC ploughed in more than 40 billion won (31.7 million dollars), mostly raised by churches and individual donors in South Korea and abroad.

"This project is not simply to feed and clothe North Koreans but help them stand on their own feet and compete on a par with international players," Choi said.

PUST would be the first institution of higher education operated and funded by associations and peoples outside the communist state, he said.

Faculty members will come from many different countries but all instruction will be given in English. In the first year it aims to accept some 200-300 graduate students.

Choi said the North's science and technology education focuses on basics and fails to produce engineers with practical knowledge needed to produce export goods.

"The North keenly feels the need for changes for economic resuscitation but it dares not, for fear of undermining its (communist) system," Choi said.

"We're not seeking to force-feed the North with changes but we only want to help it with whatever it feels it needs."

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