US Sends Tons Of Food Aid To North Korea: "U.S. doesn't use food as means of diplomatic coercion"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

SEOUL, South Korea — A U.S. ship carrying thousands of tons of food aid has arrived in North Korea, after the communist nation agreed to expanded international assistance for its impoverished people, the U.N. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. says it does not use food as a means of diplomatic coercion. However, the shipment came just days after the North 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 the North and said it would remove the country from a U.S. State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/30/us-sends-tons-of-food-aid_n_109904.html



In this June 29, 2003 file photo released by World Food Program, food aid supplied by the United States is unloaded from a vessel at Nampo port, southwest of North Korea's capital of Pyongyang. A U.S. ship carrying thousands of tons of food aid arrived in North Korea after the impoverished nation agreed to open up to widely expanded international assistance, the U.N. food agency said Monday, June 30, 2008. The U.S. aid was not directly related to the ongoing nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang, and U.S. officials have repeatedly asserted they do not use food for diplomatic coercion. (AP Photo/World Food Program, Gerald Bourke, HO)

[BreweryYardRat]

1. Good.

Glad to see the WFP's monitoring things so the NK 'government' can't make the grain disappear into Dear Leader's coffers -- my first thought on seeing the article was, "how much of this grain is going to get into the hands of the average citizens?"