A group of former statesmen led by ex-US president Jimmy Carter on Sunday said they were in Beijing on the way to North Korea in a visit aimed at easing tension on the Korean Peninsula.

A delegation of the Elders group of retired state leaders began the six-day trip to China, Pyongyang and Seoul to discuss issues including denuclearisation and reported food shortages in North Korea, the group said in a statement.

The four-member group, led by Carter, includes former Finish president Martti Ahtisaari, ex-Norwegian prime minister Harlem Brundtland and former Irish president Mary Robinson, it said.

The delegation will start their Pyongyang visit on Tuesday before moving to Seoul on Thursday to "meet senior officials, members of civil society, academic experts and foreign diplomats," said the group.

"At a time when official dialogue with DPRK (North Korea) appears to be at a standstill, we aim to see how we may be of assistance in reducing tensions and help the parties address key issues including denuclearisation," the statement quoted Carter as saying.

Brundtland expressed a concern at "the acute shortage of food" reported by the North and UN aid agencies.

"Any immediate humanitarian needs must be met - but we also want to discuss longer-term food security and health issues that are so important to economic development," Brundtland was quoted as saying.

United Nations food agencies who recently visited the North say more than six million people -- a quarter of the population -- urgently need food aid.

It was not immediately clear whether the delegates would meet with the North's leader Kim Jong-Il.

Yonhap news agency, citing diplomatic sources, said on Sunday South Korea's foreign minister Kim Sung-Hwan and unification minister Hyun In-taek, Seoul's pointman in cross-border affairs, would meet the delegates upon their request.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak is also likely to meet the former statesmen if requested, it said.

Cross-border tension has been acute since the North's bombardment of a border island that killed four South Koreans including two civilians in November, which sparked a brief fear of war.

The first attack on civilians since the 1950-53 Korean War came weeks after Pyongyang disclosed an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant to visiting US experts.

The North claimed it was a peaceful energy project but experts said it could be reconfigured to produce weapons-grade uranium.

Six-party disarmament talks with the North have been on a standstill since Pyongyang walked out in April 2008 and staged its second nuclear test a month later.

Carter has mediated in North Korea before. In 1994 he visited Pyongyang after the United States came close to war with North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme.

Last August the 2002 Nobel peace prizewinner visited Pyongyang to secure the release of jailed US citizen Aijalon Mahli Gomes.

Some analysts believe Carter will also seek to secure the freedom of a Korean-American detained by the North since last November and facing trial for unspecified crimes against the nation.

A source has said the man was involved in missionary work.

earlier related report
Australian PM to raise N. Korea in China
Seoul (AFP) April 24, 2011 - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard pledged on Sunday to urge China to help tame North Korea and ease tension on the Korean Peninsula as part of efforts to ensure regional security.

Gillard, on a visit to Seoul as part of her whirlwind Asian tour, said Sydney was "concerned about continuing North Korean aggression" and vowed to "bring continued pressure on the North Korea regime for change."

"My message would be that it is not in China's interest to have instability on the Korean peninsula," she told reporters.

She will leave for China, the communist North's major ally, on Monday for the last leg of her Asian trip that began in Japan.

"The instability here on the Korean peninsula is concerning to our region...that's why I'm putting such a focus on it in my discussions in the region," she said, calling the North's regime a "repressive dictatorship."

The isolated North heightened regional security concerns in November by disclosing an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant, which experts said could be reconfigured to produce weapons-grade uranium.

Cross-border tension escalated in the same month following Pyongyang's shelling attack on a border island that killed four South Koreans including two civilians and sparked a brief fear of war.

The six-party nuclear disarmament talks on the North, involving China, two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the US, have been on a standstill since Pyongyang stormed out in April 2008. The North staged its second nuclear test a month later.

Gillard admitted Australia was not part of the multinational disarmament efforts, but vowed to "play a role in assisting with pressure on North Korea."

"It's a hard regime to influence, but we've got to keep the pressure on, for them to show that they're genuinely prepared to change," she said.

As part of her three-day visit, Gillard also mourned on Sunday 340 Australian soldiers who fell during the Korean War, in the ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of a battle at Gapyeong.

The battle, Australia's largest military action during the war, helped stop the Chinese "spring offensive" and proved crucial in preventing a Chinese breakthrough towards Seoul, Gillard said.

"That night the defining fight for the Australians in the Korean War began... this battle that stopped a breakthrough," she said, stressing Australia proved itself as "a reliable and courageous ally."

More than 17,000 Australian troops, as part of an UN multinational force, served during the war.

She also visited the truce village of Panmunjom straddling the tense border between the two Koreas, which have technically remained at war since the 1950-53 conflict ended with a ceasefire.

On Monday, Gillard will attend the ANZAC Day Dawn Service -- Australia's memorial day -- at the National War Memorial in Seoul and hold a summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.

The two leaders will discuss a range of issues including ways to strengthen defence ties and to strike long-anticipated free trade agreement, Gillard said.