U.S. food aid to arrive in N. Korea this month: report

SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Yonhap) -- The latest U.S. shipment of food aid to Pyongyang will arrive in North Korea within the month after a four-month lull, Voice of America said Thursday, quoting a Washington official.

Some 21,000 tons of corn, the sixth batch of U.S. food aid to the North, are
scheduled to arrive within two weeks, according to the quoted U.S. State
Department official. The shipment will be the first since the U.S. halted food
aid to the communist regime in August.
Voice of America is a state-funded radio station based in the U.S. capital that
broadcasts worldwide.
The unidentified official did not elaborate on the reason for the four-month
suspension but, said Washington has been cooperating with Pyongyang to provide
food relief as agreed upon between the two countries.
The shipment will be exclusively distributed through the World Food Program
(WFP), a U.N. agency, rather than non-governmental U.S. organizations, the
official said.
The WFP estimates that North Korea needs urgent food aid worth US$346 million to
help to help some 5.6 million North Koreans, nearly a quarter of the country's
population, get through the new year.