U.S. mulling fact-finding mission to N. Korea over food shortages

(ATTN: ADDS foreign ministry spokesman's remarks, background in paras 5-10)
SEOUL, May 17 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. is considering whether to send a team of officials to North Korea to look into food shortages in the impoverished country, a visiting U.S. diplomat said Tuesday, amid a looming prospect of contact between Pyongyang and Washington.
"We will be making a decision on that in the next few days and it will be announced from Washington," Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special envoy on North Korea policies, told reporters when asked if Robert King, special ambassador on North Korean human rights, would travel to the communist state later this month on a fact-finding mission.



Bosworth was speaking following his meeting with Wi Sung-lac, South Korea's envoy to stalled six-party talks designed to denuclearize North Korea through aid. Seoul has for weeks dismissed views that its belligerent neighbor's chronic food shortages have deepened over the past year.
"We had a good discussion today of the North Korean request for food assistance and I think we have largely reached a common view on that and we will be addressing that as we move ahead," Bosworth said, speaking about his one-hour dialogue with Wi.
Speaking to reporters later in the day, South Korea's foreign ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae confirmed King's likely visit to North Korea, saying it would be decided on after Bosworth returns to the U.S.
"I expect the U.S. to come out with its final decision on food aid after" King returns from his fact-finding mission, he said. "However, even if Ambassador King were to go to North Korea, the trip in itself will not be an indication of the U.S. government's policy on food aid to North Korea."
Seoul and Washington have been cautious to resume large-scale food aid to North Korea amid concerns about transparent distribution and lingering tensions over a series of provocations by the North. Pyongyang was accused of sinking the South Korean warship Cheonan in March last year. It also bombed a South Korean border island in November. A total of 50 South Koreans were killed in the two attacks.
"In the context of food aid to North Korea, there was no special reference to the attacks on the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island," Cho said, speaking of the talks between Wi and Bosworth.
"However, I can say that the U.S. and South Korea share a common view on the fact that we cannot simply overlook the two incidents because they have a significant impact on resolving the nuclear issue."
South Korea demands that the North apologize for the two deadly events before the sides move forward to improve their frayed relations. Pyongyang has balked at the demand, blaming Seoul for provoking it into shelling Yeonpyeong and fabricating the Cheonan incident.
The meeting between Wi and Bosworth, who is making his first South Korean visit since January, follows a proposal last month by China that the nuclear envoys of the two Koreas first hold dialogue to pave the way for direct U.S.-North Korea talks and, eventually, the resumption of the six-party talks.
The multilateral talks, designed to compensate the North for nuclear dismantlement, also group Russia and Japan. They have not been held since late 2008.
North Korea, which closely coordinates its policies with China, has yet to produce a formal proposal for inter-Korean dialogue on its nuclear arms programs. Pyongyang has long argued its nuclear development is a deterrent against U.S. aggression.
In 2006 and 2009, North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and drew a wide range of U.N. sanctions. In November last year, the country unveiled a modern uranium enrichment facility that could be used as a second track to building nuclear bombs. Seoul and Washington say the activity must be stopped before the six-party talks can reopen.
"We believe that this is an activity on the part of North Koreans which is illegal under various U.N. Security Council resolutions and is contrary to various undertakings that we have received from them and that other countries have received from them," Bosworth said.
"So on the basic question of the program we don't think there is any ambiguity and we certainly have no ambivalence on our side."
During his three-day trip that ends Wednesday, Bosworth will meet with other senior officials here, including Chun Yung-woo, presidential secretary for foreign affairs and security, and Unification Minister Hyun In-taek, according to the foreign ministry.
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