WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said Wednesday it is "very concerned" about the North Korean people but cannot send needed food aid without assurances from their Stalinist government that it will reach them.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly voiced concern as the UN World Food Program said North Koreans, especially children, are facing a "critical" food situation as donations have dried up amid Pyongyang's nuclear standoff with the world.
"We currently have no plans to provide additional food aid to North Korea and any additional food would have to have assurances that it would be appropriately used," Kelly told reporters.
"We remain very concerned about the well-being of the North Korean people," the spokesman said.
"But we are very concerned because we need to have an adequate program management in place, monitoring and access provisions and we don't have that right now," he added.
He recalled that in March North Korea expelled non-governmental organization (NGO) monitors in line with its decision to reject US food aid.
"At that time we had about 22,000 metric tonnes in storage there. We've learned that the DPRK (North Korean) has distributed this food," Kelly said.
Torben Due, the World Food Program's country representative in North Korea, said in Beijing Wednesday that Pyongyang had told the agency to scale back its operations without giving clear reasons.
"It is a very serious problem for the population in (North Korea) as they do not have enough to eat," Due told reporters.
He said the WFP, which launched an emergency operation in North Korea late last year amid a deteriorating food outlook, has had to pare back its goal of reaching 6.2 million of the hungry, and is now targeting just 2.27 million.
Due said a study by the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization last year estimated nearly nine million North Koreans -- more than a third of the country's 24 million people -- require food aid.
A long-running international standoff over North Korea's nuclear programs escalated on May 25 when Pyongyang carried out its second nuclear test, followed by further missile launches, which resulted in new UN sanctions.
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