The latest shipment of food aid supplied by the United States is expected to arrive this week in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the State Department said Tuesday.
"The next shipment of food aid totaling 21,000 metric tons is now expected to arrive in the DPRK by the end of this week, with its delayed arrival due to recent rough seas," the State Department said in a statement, adding that shipment will also be distributed by U.S. NGOs.
The United States has not stopped food aid to the DPRK, the department said. More than 143,000 metric tons of food, including wheat, corn, and soybeans, was delivered to the DPRK in 2008, it said.
"We continue to support the U.S.-DPRK food aid program and are committed to the well-being of the North Korean people," the department said.
The United States announced in May 2008 resumption of food aid to the DPRK for the first time in three years. It had offered food aid from 1995 to 2005, when the program was suspended after Pyongyang expelled representatives of the World Food Program.
The Bush administration, which claimed that the resumption of food aid was unrelated to the nuclear disarmament process in the Korean Peninsula, has decided to suspend fuel shipments to the DPRK, as the latest international efforts have failed to hammer out a verification protocol of the DPRK's nuclear facilities due to Pyongyang's rejection.
The six-party talks ended the third meeting during the sixth round of talks last month in Beijing without substantial progress on how to verify the DPRK's nuclear facilities.
Source:Xinhua
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