SEOUL - NORTH Korea has replaced at least nine cabinet ministers in a major reshuffle seen as an attempt to improve the country's ailing economy, officials said on Tuesday.

Seoul's unification ministry, which closely monitors the North's official media, said Pyongyang had replaced its finance, trade and commerce ministers.

New faces were also being brought in at ministries overseeing the metal industry, electricity sector, railways, forestry and fisheries. There was also to be a new minister-level economic cooperation commission chief.

Analysts in Seoul said the North had economic recovery in mind when it conducted the reshuffle.

'The reshuffle reflected discontent by the North's leadership with the slower-than-expected economic recovery,' said Mr Kim Yong Hyun, a North Korea expert and professor at Seoul's Dongguk University.

The overhaul represents a major change in the North's ministerial lineup, and brings new blood to almost a quarter of the North's 37-member cabinet.

Officials at the unification ministry said the North had also made some changes to key military and ruling party posts, which were yet to be confirmed.

The ministry did not say when the reshuffle in Seoul's secretive northern neighbour took place. -- AFP