Latest U.S. food aid to arrive in N. Korea in mid-January: report

SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- The latest U.S. shipment of food aid will arrive in North Korea in mid-January, completing the delivery of a third of its pledged assistance, according to the Voice of America on Friday.

Washington in May promised Pyongyang 500,000 tons of food aid over the span of a
year as relations warmed with some progress in multilateral efforts to
denuclearize North Korea.
The latest round of nuclear talks early this month failed to reach a deal on
verifying North Korea's nuclear activity, but Washington said its humanitarian
aid will continue.
By mid-January, 4,940 tons of corn-soya blend and oil will have arrived in the
North as the seventh batch of aid since shipments started in June, and it will be
delivered to residents of northern regions, North Pyongyang Province and Jagang
Province, through U.S. non-governmental organizations, the U.S. state-run radio
station said.
The sixth batch of the U.S. aid was set to arrive within days.
With the latest shipment, the U.S. will be completing about a third of its
promised assistance, or 169,270 tons of food aid, to North Korea.
"Our humanitarian program will continue," State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack said this week.
The U.N. World Food Program estimates that North Korea urgently needs food worth
US$346 million to help some 5.6 million North Koreans -- nearly a quarter of the
country's population -- get through the new year.