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The U.S. has started shipments of food to North Korea in the wake of North Korea's nuclear declaration and the blasting of the cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor. A U.S. ship docked in the North Korean port of Nampo carrying 38,000 tons of food, the first shipment of 500,000 tons of food aid promised by Washington, CNN reported Sunday.
In memorandums of understanding on food aid with the U.S. and the World Food Programme, North Korea agreed to allow random checks to determine whether the intended recipients are actually getting the food, and to increase the number of foreign personnel working to provide food aid from 10 to 60.
The North also agreed to allow U.S. food aid to 150 of its counties, up from 50 in the past. Officially, the U.S. maintains the food and nuclear deals are unrelated, but the latest supply of food aid can nonetheless be seen as kind of compensation to the North for finally submitting its nuclear declaration six months after the deadline.
Meanwhile, North Korea rejected South Korea's offer in mid-May of 50,000 tons of corn aid, the Unification Ministry said Monday.
Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun told reporters, "Through the Red Cross channel at the truce village of Panmunjom last week, we asked about North Korea's view of our offer of corn aid. But a working-level North Korean official said, 'No, we won't accept it.'" Kim added Seoul remains willing to supply 50,000 tons of corn aid ˇ°at a time and location the North wants, and without having separate government-level talks or contacts, if the North accepts our proposal in the future.ˇ± He said the government was hoping for an ˇ°affirmative response.ˇ±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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