LEAD) U.S. food aid soon to arrive in N. Korea despite visa problem: State Dept.

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details, background throughout)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (Yonhap) -- The latest batch of humanitarian food aid will
arrive in North Korea later this week despite friction over the issuance of visas
for Korean speaking U.S. staff monitoring food distribution, the State Department
said Tuesday.

"The latest shipment of food aid totaling 21,000 metric tons, which was expected
to arrive by the end of December, is now expected to arrive in the DPRK on
January 2, due to recent rough seas," the department said in a statement. DPRK
stands for North Korea's official name Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"The United States has not stopped food aid to North Korea," the statement said.
The U.S. committed in May to sending 500,000 tons of humanitarian food aid to the
impoverished North Korea, and has shipped 143,000 tons so far this year despite
glitches in multilateral talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.
The statement, however, said that problems still exist in the process for
delivery of the food aid.
"The lack of sufficient Korean speakers on the WFP program is one of the key
issues in ongoing discussions," it said. "The issuance of visas for
Korean-speaking monitors for the WFP program is another issue currently being
discussed, along with other technical issues."
The statement also noted "other problems in the implementation of the world food
program portion of the food aid program," without elaborating. "Those problems
are not yet resolved," it said.
Earlier in the day, deputy spokesman Gordon K. Duguid said, "Those people we have
identified have not yet received their visas to enter North Korea. I don't know
as of today whether they have or not. We are in a process, but we have not
stopped the shipment."
The spokesman reiterated that the U.S. government needs to assure transparency in
the distribution of the food aid amid allegations that much of the food aid might
have been funneled to the military and the power elite. Millions are said to be
suffering from food shortages in the North due to chronic floods and failed
policies.
A U.S. fact-finding mission recently concluded a North Korean tour on assuring
transparency in distribution of the food aid to non-government organizations.
"The U.S. needs to make sure that it is going to go where it is supposed to go,"
the spokesman said. "We need Korean speakers to accompany the distribution to the
NGOs."
He said North Koreans "did agree that in the delivery of that humanitarian aid,
that the U.S. would be allowed to identify Korean speakers who would work with
the NGOs to make sure that it goes to the people where it is supposed to go."
He dismissed the reports that the U.S. stopped funneling the food aid to the
North due to the visa problem. "The U.S. continues with the delivery of
humanitarian aid to North Korea," he said.
The last shipment of 25,000 tons of food aid was made in November as North Korea
resumed disabling its nuclear facilities to respond to the U.S. delisting the
North as a state sponsor of terrorism in the previous month.
The latest round of the six-party talks, however, failed to produce an agreement
on how to verify what the North declared as its nuclear facilities in June.
After the disruption of the nuclear talks, Washington announced it would not
deliver energy aid promised under a six-party denuclearization deal unless the
North agreed to a complete verification protocol.
Washington, however, has said it will continue humanitarian food aid to the
impoverished communist state.
The World Food Program announced earlier this month that North Korea will need
more than 800,000 tons in additional food aid from abroad to feed its 21 million
people next year despite a rather good harvest this year.
South Korea, one of two major food donors to the North along with the U.S., has
shipped no food aid to the North since early this year, when the pro-U.S.,
conservative Lee Myung-bak government took office.
Lee's liberal predecessors had provided more than 400,000 tons of food and as
much fertilizer to the North annually virtually unconditionally over the past
decade.
Lee says he will link economic and other inter-Korean cooperation projects to
North Korea's denuclearization.
South Korean officials said North Korea is not in a dire situation requiring
emergency food aid, although it is ready to discuss such aid if the North makes a
request.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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