The United States is assessing the food situation in North Korea and will consult closely with South Korea in deciding whether to resume assistance to the impoverished nation, a senior Washington official said Saturday.
"I think we conveyed very clearly to our South Korean friends that we are still in the process of evaluating the situation on the ground and we would continue to consult closely with the South Koreans as we move forward," Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told reporters.
Campbell arrived in Seoul from Mongolia earlier in the day for consultations with South Korean officials on North Korea's uranium-enrichment program. The allies are pushing to get the U.N. Security Council to adopt a presidential statement condemning the North.
North Korea has called for food aid from countries around the world as its economic woes deepened in the wake of international sanctions for its provocations. It has relied on outside assistance to feed its 24 million population since natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its economy in the mid-1990s.
Pyongyang has also asked the U.S. to resume food aid, which was suspended in 2008 over a monitoring row.
Washington has said it would decide on the North's request after reviewing the assessment of the food situation in the country. Resumption of U.S. aid to the North could possibly warm their relations amid a standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear programs and provocations.
A joint team of U.N. food agencies, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization, has conducted a month-long examination of the food situation in North Korea. The team is expected to issue a report on their findings later this month.
South Korea apparently holds negative views on aid resumption to the North because it could undercut international pressure on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programs and take responsibility for last year's attacks on the South -- the November shelling of the border island of Yeonpyeong and the March sinking of the warship Cheonan.
Critics have questioned the motives behind the North's all-out calls for food aid, saying last year's harvests were better than the year earlier. There are also suspicions that the regime might be trying to stock up on food for use for massive celebrations on the 100th birthday of the North's late national founder, Kim Il-sung, next year.
Campbell stressed that Seoul and Washington "view this issue in very similar terms," rejecting speculation that the two sides have disagreement on the matter. Asked to comment on the speculation, Campbell said, "There is no truth to that at all."
Seoul's Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Jae-shin also said that the two sides have the "same view."
"So if it is needed, we will do. But we have to think about the timing and the circumstances. So we are waiting for the report of the WFP," Kim said. (Yonhap)
