Shipment Of U.S. Food Aid Reaches N. Korea

37,000 Tons Of Wheat Arrive After Communist Regime Agrees To Expand International Aid

(AP)  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.

Sunday's wheat shipment will be enough for the WFP to expand its operations to feed more than 5 million people, up from 1.2 million people now getting international aid.

The increased aid comes as the WFP and other groups have issued increasingly dire warnings about the food situation in the North.

The country's regular annual shortages were expected to worsen this year due to floods last summer that decimated the North's agricultural heartland. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization has said North Korea's cereal crop will fall more than 1.5 million tons short this year, its largest food gap since 2001.

Shortages have already led to prices soaring at the markets to which North Koreans who can afford it turn when public rations fail to provide enough food for their families.

The U.N. agencies are conducting a food survey expected to be ready in July to determine where to distribute the aid, but the WFP said preliminary reports "indicate a high level of food insecurity in the country."

The North has long bristled at the monitoring requirements of international donors to make sure that the food is reaching the needy. However, the WFP said that North Korea had permitted the agency to send nearly 50 more international workers to the country for monitoring.

"The challenge will now be to put words into action and quickly expand distributions of badly needed food aid to the hungriest people" of North Korea, Jean-Pierre de Margerie, WFP's Pyongyang-based country director, said in a statement.

The U.S. is the largest donor to the WFP's aid program in North Korea, having pledged $38.9 million, followed by South Korea at $20 million.

However, North Korea rejected an offer from the South for 50,000 tons of corn. The North gave its response last week through Red Cross contacts, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said Monday.

Relations between the two Koreas have grown strained since the South's conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in February. He has raised the issue of human rights abuses in the North and called on Pyongyang to reciprocate for humanitarian aid, such as by returning South Korean POWs and others held captive.

[toolmangler-2009]

My GOD and Lord is not tied to mans 24 hour day. He comes from beyond that.

[toolmangler-2009]

Posted by minnick8 at 05:37 PM : Jul 01, 2008


well said

[minnick8-2009]

Nancy,

Additionally, be sure to focus on mathematics in your home school. It doesn''t do any child justice to tutor them through 12 years of home school to have them emerge as an adult unable to function in today''s society and pursue a career of his or her choice.

[minnick8-2009]

Next week, we will cover biology and the beginning of the world when Adam and Eve were made...

Posted by Nancy_Naive

Even considering the story of the creation in the Bible, Adam and Eve were made at the beginning. They were put on the earth on the 6th day. If you consider that God''s day may not be an earth day that is 24 hours long, you have no idea how long it took from the time matter was gathered together to form the Universe until the earth was peopled six days later. Right here in our solar system there is a planet whose one day is 245 of our years. How do we know that God''s days aren''t about 600 million earth years long? There being a God, and God being eternal, don''t suppose to put a time limit on the lenght of God''s day.

While you are home schooling, be sure to bring the children to the Grand Staircase National Monument, and walk with them up the layers of the Grand Canyon, and up the layers of Vermillion cliffs, the red sandstone cliffs, the white cliffs, the Grey cliffs and the pink cliffs of limestone at 10,000 feet in elevation. Realizing that limestone is laid down under water. Notice the fossils, of oysters, and ferns, and trilobites, and dinosoar bones, and realize that it took millions of years for the bones to fossilize.

[toolmangler-2009]

"Images of the destruction of a nuclear tower are eyed with skepticism by critics of North Korea. Some say they already have all the nuclear weapons they desire."


They can have all the Nukes they want, Just let them try to use them or sell them to the extremist nut cases and see what happens,

[ginahannon]

America needs a "Don''t feed the animals" policy www.theseriouspolice.com

[inventagod2]

I may be confused, here -

Last Thursday, Bu$h declared a ''national emergency'' here in the USA, nearly decreeing martial law, over North Korean ''nukuleer activvitities''...

Today we are shipping them food???

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/06/20080626-4.html

[whitemale08]

It looks like Kim Jon Il took the bait from the Federal Reserve System.

Now that sanctions are lifted N. Korea''s central bank is now privitized meaning it will transact in dollars.

Soon the IMF will hand out loans in the form of grants to big Chinese manufactures.

Standard & Poors will downgrade N. Korea''s credit rating which will immediately make N. Korea''s currency worthless in exchange rates.

Then all that slave labor will work for unbelievably low wages to supply China''s growing middle class.

Congratulations Kim Jon Il.

[tootall10142]

Hey! cyberus that hungry child that cant possibly know about war will sleep with a full stomach and thank you to his lord, not his egotistical leader.In times like this thier leaders know that if thier people starve to death then they become even more worthless than the day before and will have no one to lead and nowhere to go. i understand your point of view please consider mine.I can a pretty ruthless attitude about some things also BELIEVE ME !

[oneworldusa]

The cost of wheat in the US just went up by a derivative of 500,000 tons.

[cyberus-2009]

Quick .. ship that food, ship those medical supplies, ship those parts and equipment .... the sooner the warehouses are full again they can start the nuke programs back up.