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.