What is the PRC doing then? They abandoned their buddy?
N. Korea asks US 'to restore food aid'
SEOUL (AFP) - – North Korea has asked the United States to
resume food aid suspended two years ago and pledged to allow
international monitors to oversee its distribution to the public, a
report said Wednesday.
South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said Han Sang-Ryol,
Pyongyang's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, made the
request on January 14 at a meeting with Robert King, the US special
envoy on human rights in North Korea.
Han told King in New York that the North was willing to allow
monitoring of the food aid "as much as the US wants", it quoted a
diplomatic source in Washington as saying.
King, who is visiting South Korea this week, said in a statement
through the US embassy that he was aware of the report but "we do
not normally discuss meetings with other governments".
US food aid was suspended in March 2009 after the North rejected
a proposal to increase the number of Korean-speaking monitors,
whose role was to ensure aid reached the general public and was not
diverted to the military or the regime.
But Washington does not believe Pyongyang has met its
conditions, the source told JoongAng, adding that even if it did,
the resumption of shipments would take time because of
congressional procedures.
King, in an interview with Yonhap news agency Wednesday, did not
refer to the JoongAng report. No decision has been made on resuming
food aid to North Korea, he was quoted as saying.
US policy is to base humanitarian assistance on need "and no
political consideration should be involved", King said.
Its other principles were to balance demands and requests since
resources are limited, and to ensure transparency in
distribution.
The North suffered a famine in the 1990s which killed hundreds
of thousands and has since relied on overseas aid to help feed its
people.
But donations have dwindled amid international concern over its
missile and nuclear programmes.
South Korea used to ship 400,000 tons of rice a year plus
300,000 tons of fertiliser to its neighbour.
The shipments ended in 2008 as relations worsened under a new
conservative government in Seoul, which linked major assistance to
nuclear disarmament.
Aid groups have warned that the North's chronic food shortages
would worsen this year.