USA - NORTH KOREA

US resumes food aid to North Korea

Friday 16 May 2008

The United States said it would send 500,000 tonnes of emergency food aid to North Korea, starting in June, following a deal with Pyongyang that allows broad monitoring of deliveries. (Story: G. Cragg)

WASHINGTON, May 16 - The United States said on Friday it would provide 500,000 metric tonnes in food aid to North Korea in a sign of improving cooperation despite their standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

The aid will start next month and be provided over a 12-month period, the statement from the U.S. Agency for International Development said.

It said the two countries had “agreed on terms for a substantial improvement in monitoring” the aid to make sure it went to the intended recipients. Previous aid shipments were suspended over concern the aid was not reaching the right people.

Aid groups say soaring global food prices and reluctance by donors have helped push North Korea close to famine.

Washington will supply 400,000 tonnes via the U.N. World Food Program, while U.S. nongovernmental organizations will distribute 100,000 tonnes, the statement said.

No dollar amount was given, because that will depend on shipping costs and commodity prices at the time food is distributed, officials said.

USAID said an experts’ meeting would be held in Pyongyang in the near future to work out operational matters.

“Pending a successful outcome of those discussions, the United States will deliver a first shipment in June, in light of the urgency of North Korea’s food shortfall,” it said.

The aid comes as Washington is putting more pressure on North Korea to come up with a declaration of its nuclear activities, part of a broader multilateral deal aimed at getting Pyongyang to abandon all of its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and diplomatic incentives.

A senior U.S. official said the aid was not related in any way to the nuclear issue. U.S. policy is not to use food as a weapon or reward.

The United States was a major provider of food aid to North Korea from 1995 until 2005, when it suspended the assistance after Pyongyang asked representatives of the WFP, through which much of the aid had been channeled, to leave.

Washington’s concern was that without the experts in the country it could not verify the aid reached those in need.