A US envoy who traveled to North Korea to assess sending food aid
said Thursday that the communist regime must address concerns about
monitoring and acknowledged that South Korea opposed assistance.
Robert King, the US special envoy for human rights in North Korea who
visited last week, said the United States was still deciding whether to
provide food. Christian relief groups have voiced fear of imminent food
shortages.
"If the team determines there is a legitimate humanitarian need, (North
Korea) must first address our serious concerns about monitoring and
outstanding issues related to our previous food program," King told
Congress.
North Korea -- whose founding ideology is "juche," or "self-reliance"
-- abruptly threw out US humanitarian workers in March 2009. They left
behind some 20,000 metric tonnes of food whose delivery the United
States planned to monitor.
King said that the United States would insist on strict guidelines if
it decided to send food aid, including sending Korean-speaking US
supervisors and not delivering all of the assistance in bulk.
"The kinds of food we provide would be the kinds of foods that are less
desirable for the elite, for the military. For example, we would not
provide rice," King told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"We would focus on some kind of nutrition program to provide other kinds of food that would be harder to divert," King said.
But King said that close ally South Korea voiced opposition during talks with the United States.
"They would prefer that we not provide food assistance. On the other
hand, they allowed NGOs in South Korea to provide food on their own,"
King said.
South Korean officials have charged that North Korea is exaggerating
its woes to foreign visitors in hopes of winning food aid, possibly to
distribute during mass celebrations next year marking the 100th birth
anniversary of the regime's founder Kim Il-Sung.
A number of conservative US lawmakers share the concerns and have urged President Barack Obama not to authorize food assistance.
"It should be clear that there would be strong opposition in the
Congress to any attempt to provide food assistance paid for by the
American taxpayer for more bread and circuses in Pyongyang," said
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican who chairs the
House Foreign Affairs Committee.
But US relief groups that previously delivered US aid have voiced fear
that parts of North Korea will run out of food in mid-June. Hundreds of
thousands of North Koreans died in a famine in the 1990s.
Samaritan's Purse, a Christian-oriented group that was among five
organizations that visited North Korea in February, has said that a
harsh winter reduced crop yield and some people were already eating
grass.
Former president Jimmy Carter after a trip to North Korea also called
for the aid and said the United States and South Korea were committing
a "human rights violation" for, in his view, withholding food for
political reasons.
Obama, despite his support for dialogue with US foes, has stood firm
against talks with North Korea until it clearly commits to reducing
tensions with South Korea and giving up its nuclear program.
But King said that the United States had no political considerations
when determining emergency aid and would make a decision solely on
North Korea's needs.
During King's trip, North Korea freed a US citizen, Eddie Jun Yong-Su,
a businessman who was apparently detained for missionary activities.
King also reported progress on another front -- he noted that
North Korea allowed him to visit even though his job centers on human
rights. Pyongyang has never let in the UN special rapporteur on human
rights.
A North Korean official "invited me back to Pyongyang to have
discussions on human rights and I'm looking forward to possibly having
that opportunity," King said.
The State Department in its annual report said North Korea had
a dismal rights record, carrying out a range of abuses including
infanticide and apparent shoot-to-kill orders against fleeing refugees. AFP
