U.S. appeases Seoul over aid to N. Korea

U.S. appeases Seoul over aid to N. Korea

SEOUL (AFP): U.S. presidential security advisor Anthony Lake
yesterday tried to ease South Korean jitters by playing down
Washington's unilateral decision to give two million dollars in
new aid to North Korea.

Lake also told South Korean Foreign Minister Gong Ro-myung
that Washington would maintain close consultations with Seoul on
any moves to seek normalization with Pyongyang, Gong's office
said.

"Mr. Lake clarified the U.S. policy that South Korea would not
be sidelined in talks with North Korea," the office said, as
Seoul warned its own citizens against unauthorized aid efforts.

With no signs of detente from its hostile neighbor, South
Korea has urged Washington and Tokyo to slow down approaches to
Pyongyang, insisting the North's food situation should be vetted
first.

UN officials say several million people face possible
starvation in the North. But South Korean officials suspect North
Korea may be exaggerating.

Lake described last week's U.S. pledge to give US$2 million in
grain aid to North Korea through the World Food Program (WFP) as
a humanitarian gesture.

Gong did not oppose Washington's "indirect humanitarian aid of
limited scale" to Pyongyang, but made clear Seoul's objection to
large-scale aid so long as tension on the Korean peninsula
remained, ministry officials said.

Lake did not mention any new U.S. moves to ease economic
sanctions against Pyongyang, they said.

Washington promised to ease its decades-long trade embargo on
Pyongyang in 1994 when North Korea agreed to freeze its
controversial nuclear program.

Lake later yesterday met with South Korean President Kim
Young-sam. He will continue his consultations in Tokyo where
Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto has also hinted at
offering food aid to North Korea.

Washington earlier donated $225,000 to the UN Children's Fund
(Unicef), which followed the delivery of 650,000 tons of rice,
worth some $50 million, last year by South Korea and Japan.

At an annual meeting of overseas mission chiefs yesterday,
Gong said South Korea will "do its utmost" to help alleviate a
food crisis and other problems in the North if it takes
reciprocal steps.

"The biggest challenge facing us this year is how we can
effectively deal with the volatile North Korean issue," Gong
said, noting Pyongyang faces both food shortages and political
instability.

Seoul has reacted sensitively to individual donations to
hunger-stricken North Koreans from the South, warning that all
private aid should go through a unified government channel.

Yesterday, the National Council of Churches (NCC) of South
Korea announced a plan to visit North Korea next month to assess
its food needs, but met resistance from the government.

"Individual activities by some civilian groups don't help to
improve inter-Korean relations," an official said, adding that
legal measures could be taken to stop the trip.