Posted on 02/21/2003 9:32:17 PM PST by maui_hawaii
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has indicated that the United States will resume food aid to North Korea.
He said he expected to announce the decision during his four-day tour of East Asia to discuss the escalating tensions with both Iraq and North Korea.
The announcement will lead to the resumption of US aid supplies to the World Food Programme that ended three months ago.
The announcement will also coincide with Mr Powell's efforts to encourage Japan, China and South Korea to put pressure on Pyongyang to halt its nuclear weapons programmes.
On Friday, North Korea kept up its recent angry rhetoric, denouncing next month's joint US-South Korean military exercises as a "nuclear test war" and prelude to military attack.
The US has repeatedly insisted that the exercises are an annual event, unconnected to the current crisis.
Distribution concerns
Mr Powell said: "We will be making an announcement soon of an initial tranche and then we will monitor World Food Programme needs, what they ask for, to see what our additional contribution will be as we go through the year," he said.
"Before this trip is out, I think I'll be able to say more about food."
Shipments of US food aid to North Korea were stopped in December last year as Washington did not have congressional authority to spend aid money in 2003.
Permission has now been granted.
"We should not be using the food to prop up the elite of the regime, we should be using the food to help people that are desperately in need," Mr Powell said.
"If we can help them, we will, but we have to make sure that the kids and people in need are getting the food"
Aid agencies in North Korea have said it is difficult to ensure the food is going where it is most needed.
Some critics had accused the US of using food as a political tool - suggesting aid was withheld to put pressure on the North Korean government to halt its nuclear programmes.
The nuclear standoff between the US and North Korea began late last year when the US accused Pyongyang of continuing its nuclear weapons programme in violation of an international pact.
China talks
Mr Powell is due in Tokyo on Saturday, Beijing on Sunday and Seoul on Monday where he will attend the inauguration of new South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Tuesday.
The Iraq crisis will also be on the tour agenda.
Mr Powell is due meet Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Communist Party chief Hu Jintao during his visit to Beijing.
China has been wary of US motives against Iraq, arguing that weapons inspectors should be given more time to investigate the country's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Beijing also differs with Washington over North Korea, which sees China as one of its closest allies.
The US wants China to become more involved in urging Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions. But China has called for bilateral talks between Pyongyang and Washington, in line with North Korea's wishes.
Mr Powell will end his regional tour with Mr Roh's inauguration in Seoul on Tuesday.
A US official told Reuters news agency that Washington did not "intend to urge any particular position" on Mr Roh as he needed time to decide his policies.
But the outgoing South Korean government is known to favour dialogue rather than sanctions, and Mr Roh warned this week that he was "willing to differ with the United States" if it meant war could be avoided.
This is the strangest of all possible worlds.....
Diffusing tension and add a dash of moral high ground...then the neighbors don't think the US is at fault all the time anymore...That food aide might make the little people in North Korea not think too much of mentall Il also.
The trick is, how do you get this stuff past the Army to the people who need it.
Certainly there has to be some kind of plan in the mix.
Two possibilities: One that he needs a couple of months before he can turn his attention to the fools running North Korea, and two is that the first people who will starve to death there without American aid are the ones least in favor of the regime and the most potentially friendly to us.
Not much in the way of good options at present.
Maybe that is exactly what he is doing. Thinking.
We either kick Korean ass in a war or we kick it diplomatically.
The situation won't be polarized as much with a move like this. If Kim peeps, everyone will simply not like Kim Jung Il at all, and have no complaints about the US.
Bingo.
Has lots to do with the neighbors around Asia also.
These "people" have a massive, 1.4 million strong army. They are choosing to feed their army, not themselves.
This is why we are the greatest nation on earth.
This is why we have moral authority.
Commander: "It's coming in awfully quick."
Famous last words.
This is Bush's doing. Bush said before he wont use food as a weapon.
Now, if Bush were giving them oil that would be a problem.
Still don't like Kim J. Il though, nor what he is, and has in N.Korea.
I would bet money that the average guy on the street doesn't even know what is going on. They probably don't even know N. Korea has a nuclear reactor.
Dictatorships like Kim's are propped up with propaganda and anger and lies.
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