N Korea gets help from Japan

2004-08-05 10:16

Tokyo - The first Japanese food aid to North Korea in nearly four years is set to be delivered to the impoverished Stalinist state later this year after Tokyo gave its green light to the plan on Thursday.

The 125 000 tons of food is to be delivered through the World Food Programme while seven million dollars' worth of medical supplies will be handled by the United Nations Children's Fund Unicef and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The aid package worth $47-million is the first tranche of assistance promised to the North in May during a summit between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang.

It received cabinet approval on Thursday.

Severe food shortages

The medicine is expected to be delivered later this month, while the food package including 40 000 tonnes of rice was expected to arrive by the end of the year.

North Korea continues to face severe food shortages nearly a decade after famine left more than one million people dead, according to estimates from western relief agencies.

WFP has appealed for 484 000 tonnes of food aid this year but acknowledges that confirmed pledges have fallen short of the target so far.

Japan will decide on when it will extend the rest of the aid - including another 125 000 tonnes of food - after working-level talks scheduled to start in Beijing on Wednesday, Jiji Press news agency said.

The talks are expected to focus on the fate of 10 missing Japanese nationals whom Tokyo believes were kidnapped by North Korean agents in the Cold War era although Pyongyang has said they are dead or unaccounted for.

At the May summit, North Korea promised a fresh probe on them.

- AFP