(2nd LD) N. Korea refuses to accept further food aid from U.S.: State Dept.

(ATTN: UPDATES with Seoul's estimation of N.K. food shortage in 8th para)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON/SEOUL, March 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has refused to accept
humanitarian food aid from the U.S., the State Department said Tuesday, amid
escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's planned rocket
launch and ongoing joint military drills between South Korea and the U.S.
"North Korea has informed the United States that it does not wish to receive
additional U.S. food assistance at this time," spokesman Robert Wood said. "We
will work with U.S. NGOs and the North Korean counterparts to ensure that food
that's already been delivered -- or food that's already in North Korea -- is
distributed to the intended recipients."
NGOs refers to nongovernmental organizations.
The suspension of food aid comes as North Korea is threatening to put a satellite
in orbit, which the U.S. and its allies see as a cover for testing a ballistic
missile capable of hitting the mainland U.S.
Talk is rife over possible further sanctions on the North after the launch,
scheduled for early April, although China and Russia have shown restraint.
The U.S. has delivered 169,000 tons of food to North Korea since May, when
Washington pledged to provide up to 500,000 tons to help alleviate the North's
chronic food shortage.
"The last shipment of U.S. food aid, which was nearly 5,000 metric tons of
vegetable oil and corn-soy blend, arrived in North Korea in late January, and is
being distributed by U.S. NGOs," Wood said.
North Korea's harvest this year will fall short of the demand by its 24 million
people by about 1.17 million tons, according to the Seoul government. Even if the
North's own imports and Chinese aid are considered, the net shortage will likely
surpass 500,000 tons, it said.
The U.S. spokesman said he had no idea what caused the North Koreans to reject
further food assistance, hinting that the North's reluctance to issue visas for
Korean-speaking monitors at the World Food Program might have played a role.
"I know that that was still an issue that was trying to be worked out," the
spokesman said. "Whether or not that is the reason -- the real reason that the
North decided to do what it's doing, I don't know. I'd have to refer you to
them."
North Korea has been refusing to issue visas to Korean-speaking monitors, whose
mission is to assure that the food aid is not being funneled as suspected to the
military and government elite.
Seoul's unification minister said North Korea was making a carefully calculated
decision. Pyongyang does not want to be seen as dependent on a country that it
accuses of preparing for an invasion through the joint military drill, Minister
Hyun In-taek said. The communist state also prefers to reject the aid itself
rather than have the U.S. suspend it as one of possible sanctions after the
North's rocket launch.
"We have been watching closely how North Korea would feel about receiving the
food aid from the U.S. while the military drill is underway," Hyun said in a
forum with local journalists in Seoul.
Also, the international community including "South Korea, the U.S.and Japan are
critical of what it calls a satellite launch. I believe the North's rejection is
an answer to the international situation it is now in."
The U.S. spokesman said Washington is ready to deliver the remainder of the
promised food aid.
"As you know, the food situation in North Korea is not a good one, and so we're
very concerned about it," he said. "And one of the things I also want to mention
is that we have aimed to implement the U.S.-DPRK food aid program according to
the terms agreed to by the United States and the North Korean government in May
2008."
The WFP said in December that North Korea will need more than 800,000 tons of
additional food aid from abroad to feed its 24 million people this year despite a
comparatively good harvest.
The conservative Lee Myung-bak government of South Korea did not provide food aid
to North Korea last year, demanding as a quid pro quo that the North make
progress in the six-party talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons programs.
The unification minister reaffirmed that Seoul will provide unconditional aid
when North Korea accepts calls for dialogue.
"Our position is that we are in favor of providing humanitarian aid," he said,
"Our government has made proposals of dialogue to North Korea and it's North
Korea's turn to answer."
Lee's liberal predecessors had provided 500,000 tons or so of food aid to North
Korea every year over the past decade despite North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
It is not likely the Lee administration will soon resume food aid to the North as
inter-Korean relations plummeted to the lowest point in a decade as Pyongyang
occasionally shut down communications and transportation between South Korea and
the South's industrial complex in Kaesong, just north of the demilitarized zone
dividing the two Koreas, seen as a symbol of the inter-Korean rapprochement of
the past decade.
Wood said the food aid to North Korea is humanitarian assistance that has nothing
to do with the six-party talks.
"I mean, clearly this is food assistance that the North Korean people need."
The six-party talks are at a standstill as North Korea refused to agree to a
verification protocol for its nuclear facilities in the latest round of talks in
December.
The Barack Obama administration has pledged to continue the multilateral
denuclearization talks while concurrently pursuing more direct bilateral
engagement.
hdh@yna.co.kr
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)