Food aid supplied by the United States at Nampo port, southwest of North Korea's capital of Pyongyang.
Article by:
Agencies
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SEOUL, South Korea - A US
ship carrying thousands of tons of food aid has arrived in North Korea, after the nation
agreed to expanded international assistance for its people, the UN food agency
said Monday.
The World Food Program said the American ship that arrived
Sunday carried 37,000 tons of wheat, the first installment of 500,000 tons in
promised US
aid that will be distributed by the United Nations.
The
aid was not directly related to the ongoing nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang,
as the US
says it does not use food as a means of diplomatic coercion. However, the
shipment came just days after North Korea handed over its delayed
atomic declaration and blew up the cooling tower at its main reactor site.
In
exchange, Washington has removed some economic
sanctions against North
Korea and said it would remove the country
of about 23 million from a US State Department list of state sponsors of
terrorism.
North Korea agreed to the new aid program
Friday, WFP spokesman Paul Risley said, the same day Pyongyang blew up the reactor tower.
The
American food supplies will help the WFP expand its operations to feed more
than 5 million people, up from 1.2 million who receiving international aid, the
organization said in a statement.
The
increased aid comes as the WFP and other groups have issued increasingly dire
warnings about the food situation in the North.
The country's regular annual shortages were expected to
worsen this year due to floods last summer that decimated North Korea's
agricultural heartland. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization has said North Korea's
cereal crop will fall more than 1.5 million tons short this year, its largest
food gap since 2001.
Shortages
have already led to prices soaring at the markets to which North Koreans who
can afford it turn to when public rations fail to provide enough food for their
families.
The
UN agencies are conducting a food survey expected to be ready in July to
determine where to distribute the aid, but the WFP said preliminary reports
"indicate a high level of food insecurity in the country."
Risley
said the WFP may have to request additional food donations depending on the
results of that survey.
North Korea has long bristled at the
monitoring requirements of international donors to make sure that the food is
reaching the needy. However, the WFP said that North Korea had permitted the
agency to sent nearly 50 more international workers to the country for
monitoring.
"The
challenge will now be to put words into action and quickly expand distributions
of badly needed food aid to the hungriest people" of North Korea,
Jean-Pierre de Margerie, WFP's Pyongyang-based country director, said in a
statement.
American
relief groups will distribute 100,000 tons of the aid in two northwestern
provinces, with the WFP operating elsewhere.
The
US is the largest donor to
the WFP's aid program in North Korea,
having pledged $38.9 million, followed by South Korea at $20 million.
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