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Some 400,000 tons of food aid the U.S. government had promised North Korea through the UN World Food Programme this year have been on hold since August because it is impossible to monitor where the food goes, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
In May, the U.S. announced a plan to give 500,000 tons of food aid -- 400,000 tons through the WFP and 100,000 tons through U.S. NGOs -- to help starving North Koreans. The food aid through the NGOs, including a shipment of 25,000 tons of corn and beans that arrived in the North on Nov. 23, has been underway.
But after 118,270 tons of food aid was delivered until August, further shipments through the WFP have been suspended due to dispute with the North over the distribution monitoring system.
"The North Koreans are fulfilling their obligations under agreements with the WFP and the U.S. government," Tony Banbury, Asia director for the WFP, said. "We just no longer have food to deliver, and that is risking the cooperation we have been receiving from the North."
U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood was quoted as saying his government "seeks to fully implement the terms of the food aid agreement with North Korea, which included agreed-upon improvements in monitoring and access conditions that are necessary to effectively ensure food is reaching those most in need."
But the paper said U.S. officials disagree with North Korea over the issues of increasing the number of U.S. staff to monitor food distribution and dispatch monitors who can speak Korean.
Meanwhile, the WFP and The Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on Monday released a report saying that 8.7 million people, or a third of North Koreans, will suffer a food shortage next year.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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