The United States has reached a deal with North Korea to provide 500,000 tons of food aid over the coming year to the isolated communist nation.
The U.S. administration says the aid has little to do with its nuclear disarmament deal with Pyongyang, although both have involved an unusual intensity of U.S. diplomacy with North Korea, a nation President George W. Bush once included as part of a rhetorical ``axis of evil.''
``We don't see any connection,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack was quoted as saying. ``We're doing this because America is a compassionate nation and the United States and the American people are people who reach out to those in need.''
North Korea welcomed the U.S. offer of food aid, saying Saturday the assistance would help alleviate food shortages and improve relations between the two countries.
``The food aid of the U.S. government will help settle the food shortage in the (North) to a certain extent and contribute to promoting the understanding and confidence between the peoples of the two countries,'' the country's official Korean Central News Agency said.
The North was ``ready to provide all technical conditions necessary for the food delivery,'' the KCNA said.
The United States last provided food aid to North Korea in 2005. Further deliveries fell apart in a dispute over a U.S. demand for close oversight of how the aid would be distributed. The United States wants assurances the food won't be diverted or used improperly by the government of Kim Jong-il.
The new agreement followed weeks of talks over the aid would be monitored.
``The two sides have agreed on terms for a substantial improvement in monitoring and access in order to allow for confirmation of receipt by the intended recipients,'' according to a statement from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
McCormack said the shipments will begin in June, and will be distributed through the United Nations World Food Program and a charity group.
The United States said it does not know exactly how much the deal will cost, because prices will depend on such variables as the costs of food and shipping, both of which are rising fast.
The North's food situation has worsened this year due to last year's devastating floods that destroyed more than 11 percent of the country's crops.
The country has resorted to international assistance to feed its 23 million people since the mid-1990s due to natural disasters and mismanagement. The United Nations has warned that North Korea urgently needs outside aid to avert a worse humanitarian disaster.
South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Thursday his government is also willing to talk with North Korea about food aid.
Relations between the two Koreas worsened after South Korea's new conservative government was inaugurated on Feb. 25 with a pledge to take a tougher line on the North, which subsequently said it would stop seeking help from the South, previously a key donor.