ID :
34637
Tue, 12/09/2008 - 15:51
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/34637
The shortlink copeid
Seoul indicates no immediate plan to send food aid to N. Korea
SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea indicated Tuesday it has no immediate plan to send food aid to North Korea after U.N. agencies released a report citing increased food production in the communist state this year.
The joint report by the World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agricultural
Organization estimated the North's total food production would be 3.3 million
tons milled -- 4.21 million tons unmilled -- for 2008-2009, leaving the country
with a food deficit of 836,000 tons over the coming months.
Kim Ho-nyoun, spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry, told reporters that the
report represented a modest increase in production from last year's 3 million
tons milled. He noted many South Korean experts and relief group activists have
anticipated a bigger harvest for this year.
North Korea has relied on foreign handouts to help feed its 23 million people
since the late 1990s, when about 2 million people are believed to have starved to
death from a severe famine that struck the country. In July, the WFP warned the
communist nation could face one of its worst food shortages in years due to
flooding and fertilizer shortages.
North Korea has yet to request the annual shipment of 400,000 tons of rice and
300,000 tons of fertilizer it normally receives from South Korea amid chilled
cross-border relations.
Seoul has been waiting for the release of the field survey report before making a
decision on whether to provide humanitarian aid to the impoverished country.
It has so far maintained it would send food aid only when the North requests it
or when the country's chronic food shortages become substantially worse.
"We are now in neither of the two situations," Kim said when asked if current
circumstances called for emergency aid. "As for the question of sending food aid
to North Korea, we're going to comprehensively consider all factors," he said,
adding public opinion is one such factor.
South Koreans, however, have become largely unsympathetic as North Korea has
taken a series of hostile steps to protest conservative South Korean President
Lee Myung-bak's tough stance toward Pyongyang.
The North suspended cross-border rail services and sightseeing tours to the
ancient North Korean city of Kaesong early this month. It also tightened controls
over cross-border traffic.
Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong told lawmakers last week that the government
cannot but be prudent in providing aid to North Korea when Pyongyang has taken
such measures to cut ties with Seoul.
The joint report by the World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agricultural
Organization estimated the North's total food production would be 3.3 million
tons milled -- 4.21 million tons unmilled -- for 2008-2009, leaving the country
with a food deficit of 836,000 tons over the coming months.
Kim Ho-nyoun, spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry, told reporters that the
report represented a modest increase in production from last year's 3 million
tons milled. He noted many South Korean experts and relief group activists have
anticipated a bigger harvest for this year.
North Korea has relied on foreign handouts to help feed its 23 million people
since the late 1990s, when about 2 million people are believed to have starved to
death from a severe famine that struck the country. In July, the WFP warned the
communist nation could face one of its worst food shortages in years due to
flooding and fertilizer shortages.
North Korea has yet to request the annual shipment of 400,000 tons of rice and
300,000 tons of fertilizer it normally receives from South Korea amid chilled
cross-border relations.
Seoul has been waiting for the release of the field survey report before making a
decision on whether to provide humanitarian aid to the impoverished country.
It has so far maintained it would send food aid only when the North requests it
or when the country's chronic food shortages become substantially worse.
"We are now in neither of the two situations," Kim said when asked if current
circumstances called for emergency aid. "As for the question of sending food aid
to North Korea, we're going to comprehensively consider all factors," he said,
adding public opinion is one such factor.
South Koreans, however, have become largely unsympathetic as North Korea has
taken a series of hostile steps to protest conservative South Korean President
Lee Myung-bak's tough stance toward Pyongyang.
The North suspended cross-border rail services and sightseeing tours to the
ancient North Korean city of Kaesong early this month. It also tightened controls
over cross-border traffic.
Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong told lawmakers last week that the government
cannot but be prudent in providing aid to North Korea when Pyongyang has taken
such measures to cut ties with Seoul.
