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The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Tony Hall, the United States ambassador to the United Nations food agencies, said the US was delaying 2003 food pledges to North Korea because of "credible" reports that the government was reallocating food aid to its soldiers and political elite. Ambassador Hall was reported to have said that the US would probably deliver food to the UN World Food Program (WFP), when the agency received further assurances it can get food to the people it is intended for.
He said that there were reports that after WFP staff had gone from the food distribution sites, government officials collected the distributed food and reallocated it to soldiers and the political elite. "We are going to continue to be there because we don't use food as a weapon," Hall told reporters. "But we are going to be darn sure that if we tell you where the food is supposed to be and you give it to someone else, then we're going to wait, and we're going to be darn sure that our food is getting through to the right people."
AP said that Washington had been the largest donor to the agency's North Korea projects, providing about US$61 million worth of aid equal to 172,700 tons, last year. The agency has appealed for US$201 million for North Korea for 2003, but less than US$15 million has been pledged from the European Union and Italy. And although Japan provided US$14 million worth of aid in 2001, it did not provide any aid last year.
According to Ministry of Unification (MOU) statistics, yearly North Korean food consumption requirements are six million tons, but it produces on average only four million tons each year, resulting in a chronic shortage. This year, 76 tons of food aid has been pledged by South Korea and the international society.
(Kim Yeon-kuk, yk-kim@chosun.com )
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