Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=12/24/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-S / NORTH KOREA AID (L)

NUMBER=2-311185

BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST

DATELINE=STATE DEPARTMENT

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The United States announced Wednesday it is providing another 60-thousand metric tons of food aid to North Korea. Bush administration officials say they're still dissatisfied with the transparency of food distribution in North Korea, but are responding to an emergency appeal by the United Nations' World Food Program, the W-F-P. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

TEXT: The United States had pledged up to 100-thousand tons of food aid to North Korea this year. But until Wednesday it had committed only 40-thousand tons of that because of Pyongyang's reluctance to let outside aid workers monitor food distribution.

In the Christmas-eve announcement, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States decided to provide the remaining tonnage after receiving written appeals from World Food Program Executive Director James Morris.

Mr. Morris told U-S officials that four million of the most-vulnerable North Koreans will be threatened by famine this winter unless more contributions are received now to sustain the U-N agency's feeding programs.

The W-F-P official said more than 70-thousand North Korean children are suffering from severe malnutrition, as are 30 per cent of the country's pregnant and nursing women.

Spokesman Boucher said Mr. Morris reported "some progress" on transparency over the past year, saying North Korean officials had granted the W-F-P access to an additional district, increased the average number of monthly monitoring visits, and provided some statistical information helpful in determining needs.

However, the spokesman said the W-F-P chief stressed in the letters that his and U-S concerns about overall monitoring and access are "exactly the same."

Mr. Boucher said the United States again calls on North Korea to adhere to the same standards of humanitarian access that apply to other recipients of international food aid.

U-S food aid to North Korea has declined by about one-third from past years. But the United States remains the single-biggest supplier of such aid to Pyongyang.

Spokesman Boucher said the United States is committed to providing what he termed "our fair share" without linkage to U-S concerns about North Korea's policies.

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In an interview with Japan's Nikkei news agency released Wednesday, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage reiterated President Bush's commitment not to use North Korea food aid as a weapon.

He said the administration hopes for an early resumption, sometime in January, of six-way talks hosted by China on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

Mr. Armitage said if North Korea followed the lead of Libya in volunteering to dismantle weapons of mass destruction it would rapidly find itself "integrated into the vibrant community of East Asia," though he said he doubted this will happen. (Signed)

NEB/DAG/KL