WFP Says N. Korea Will Accept Food Aid from S. Korea

SEOUL (Yonhap) - North Korea, going through "a very dire period" before the harvest season, will not reject aid from South Korea despite recent political chills, the World Food Program's (WFP) North Korea director said on Sept. 7.

"The DPRK (North Korea) is currently going through an agricultural lean
season" just before harvest time, Jean-Pierre de Margerie said in an email
interview with Yonhap News Agency, calling the North by its official name,
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). "WFP estimates that this is a
very dire period in terms of food security."

The United Nations aid agency says North Korea will slip back to famine unless
given aid worth about US$500 million in the next 15 months and has formally asked
South Korea to contribute US$60 million for its campaign in North Korea.

South Korea has yet to respond to the appeal. Seoul suspended direct shipments of
food to the North after the conservative Lee Myung-bak government took office in
February on a pledge to pursue inter-Korean relations on a reciprocal basis.

The Lee government later proposed talks with the North to send 50,000 tons of
corn through the WFP, but the North has not responded to the offer amid chilled
ties between the two nations.

Margerie ruled out any possibility that Pyongyang would reject Seoul's aid,
calling on South Korea to act on the offer.

"In the 13 years WFP has operated in the country, the DPRK government has
accepted the multilateral character of WFP food assistance and has never rejected
funds from a particular donor through WFP," he said.

He also brushed off concerns in the South that Seoul's aid may go unnoticed in
the North, saying "WFP indicates who the donor is with bag markings" as
its standard practice.

The Seoul government remains tepid over large-scale food aid for North Korea,
with public sentiment worsening after the July shooting death of a South Korean
tourist in the North's Mt. Kumgang resort.