U.S. mulling sending mission to N. Korea to assess food situation: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, May 18 (Yonhap) -- The United States is considering sending a fact-finding mission to North Korea to assess the food situation there, but no decision has been made, the State Department said Wednesday.
Reports said that Robert King, U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, will lead a U.S. fact-finding mission to North Korea early next week to assess the food situation in the impoverished North.
"We're considering sending Ambassador King to North Korea to do our own assessment, which is a part of any food assistance program that we would implement," spokesman Mark Toner said. "We continue to assess the need for food assistance to North Korea and we're looking at a possible trip. But again, no firm dates."
North Korea recently appealed to the U.S. for food aid, suspended two years ago over a lack of transparency in the distribution and mounting tensions after the North's nuclear and missile tests.
The United Nations last month appealed for 430,000 tons of food for North Korea to feed 6 million people stricken by floods and severe winter weather. A U.N. monitoring team concluded a fact-finding mission in North Korea early last month.
Toner reiterated that any food aid will be made on humanitarian, not political, grounds.
"Our food-assistance program is, as I talked about yesterday, is done in a very objective fashion, divorced from any other policy concerns," he said. "It's consistent with our desire to aid humanitarian or provide humanitarian assistance where it's needed."
The spokesman dismissed criticism that the suspension of food aid to North Korea by South Korea and the U.S. aggravated the food situation in the North.
"It's important to recognize that North Korea is largely responsible for the situation it's in," Toner said. "It's caused by bad policies and the misallocation and mismanagement of resources. And also just to remind folks that in 2008 we did have our food assistance program kicked out of there."
South Korea appears to be more stringent in resuming food aid.
Critics say North Korea is exaggerating its food shortages to hoard food in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the birth of its late leader, Kim Il-sung, next April 15.
As a condition to providing food and reopening the six-party talks, held last in December 2008, South Korea wants the North to address its grievances over the sinking of a South Korean warship and the shelling of a border island that killed 50 people last year.
In an incremental approach toward the nuclear talks' resumption, South Korea and China recently called on North Korea to have a bilateral nuclear dialogue with South Korea and then another bilateral discussion with the U.S. ahead of any plenary session of the six-party talks. The North has not yet responded to the proposal.
Toner, meanwhile, called on China to allow the U.N. Security Council to release a report on North Korea's proliferation of missile technology.
He said the U.S. wants the report prepared by a U.N. experts' panel monitoring sanctions on North Korea to be released "so that other countries can be aware of its contents."
"North Korea's sharing of this kind of technology has long been of concern to the United States," he said. "I don't want to talk about the report specifically because it hasn't been released yet, but we continue to call for its release."
The report alleges that North Korea has continued proliferating missiles and their parts to Iran and other countries in violation of international sanctions.
The sanctions were imposed under U.N. Security Council resolutions adopted after North Korea tested nuclear bombs and test-launched ballistic missiles in 2006 and 2009.
The report has not yet been officially released due to opposition from China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally. All 15 Security Council members need to sign it before its release.
Iran has denied the report alleging it received missile technology shipments from North Korea through a third country, which diplomats say is China. Tehran insists it has sufficient technology to develop missiles on its own.
A similar report by the panel was delayed for six months until November, when China finally gave a green light to its publication.