N. Korean officials visited Los Angeles to discuss food aid by NGOs: sources

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By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 (Yonhap) -- A group of North Korean officials visited Los
Angeles last week to meet with U.S. relief organizations on the resumption of
food aid to the North, diplomatic sources here said Thursday.
Humanitarian food aid was suspended in March, when the North Korean government
expelled officials of foreign nongovernmental organizations amid escalating
tensions over the North's rocket launch.
"I understand that North Korean officials visited Los Angeles last week to meet
with officials of nongovernmental organizations which had provided food aid to
the North," a source said, adding the delegation consisted of officials from the
Korea-U.S. Private Exchange Society, which coordinates food and other relief
goods aid to the North by U.S. nongovernmental organizations.
Another source said, "The North Korean delegation made no contacts with U.S.
government officials while staying in the U.S. for several days," adding that the
delegation toured Operation USA and other relief groups and food and medical
supply warehouses set aside for aid.
The visit comes during a thaw in North Korea's relations with the U.S. and South
Korea in recent weeks as Pyongyang has made a series of conciliatory moves,
including the release of two American journalists and a South Korean worker held
in the North for months. North Korea also allowed the resumption of cross border
tours and business projects, suspended since last year, and welcomed former U.S.
President Bill Clinton and a South Korean tycoon.
Just months ago, Pyongyang's relations with Seoul and Washington were at their
lowest level in decades after its nuclear and missile tests, which invited U.N.
sanctions.
The conciliatory gestures are seen as the result of the sanctions taking effect
to squeeze the cash-strapped North, which is also suffering from a shortage of
food and other necessities.
The World Food Program has said that North Korea will need more than 800,000 tons
of food aid from abroad to feed its 24 million people this year.
South Korea's conservative Lee Myung-bak government has provided no food aid to
North Korea, demanding as a quid pro quo that the North make progress in the
six-party talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons programs.
Over the past decade, Lee's liberal predecessors each year shipped about 400,000
tons of food and as much fertilizer to North Korea despite the regime's nuclear
ambitions.
The U.S., which had provided more than 2 million tons of food aid to the North in
the past decade or so, also suspended food aid in March when North Korea refused
to issue visas to Korean-speaking monitors, whose mission was to assure that the
food aid was not being funneled to the military and government elite.
The U.S. had delivered 169,000 tons of food to North Korea until March from May
last year, when Washington pledged to provide 500,000 tons of food to help
alleviate the North's chronic food shortage.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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