S. Korea ready to provide corn to food-short North
S.KOREA: South Korea is ready to provide the reclusive North with a
small amount of food aid, a minister said on Wednesday, playing down
reports that it may be facing famine.
Flooding last year, higher commodity prices and political wrangling
with major donor South Korea have pushed North Korea to a food shortfall
similar to ones it faced about a decade ago when famine killed an
estimated 1 million people, experts have said.
Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong told reporters South Korea had
contacted the North about providing 50,000 tonnes of corn, as agreed to
in a previous deal, but had yet to receive a reply.
"We are trying to pursue the corn aid despite the continued attack
from the North," Kim said.
North Korea has branded conservative President Lee Myung-bak "a
traitor to the nation" over his calls to restrict the free flow of aid
the North had seen under his liberal predecessors and tie handouts to
how well the North lives up to an international deal to end its nuclear
weapons programme.
North Korea has said it is willing to cut off all dialogue with Seoul
in anger at Lee's hardline stance and even threatened to reduce its
neighbour to ashes.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation said in late March it
expects North Korea to have a shortfall of about 1.66 million tonnes in
cereals for the year ending in October 2008, which would be the largest
deficit in about seven years.
Kim said the North was reporting a deficit of 1.2 million tonnes. "It
is a bit difficult but not a serious situation," he told the news
briefing quoting from the North's official media.
South Korea usually sends about 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes of rice aid
a year to North Korea. The Lee government has yet to send aid, saying it
is waiting for a request from the North.
Seoul, Wednesday, Reuters
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