North, South Koreas Halt Negotiations On Food Aid Conditions On Distributing Food To Relieve Famine Are At Issue

Talks between North and South Korean Red Cross officials broke off Monday without agreement on the amount of food aid or conditions for delivering it from the South to the hungry North.

The two sides could meet again within 10 days, negotiators said. But for now they are deadlocked over three South Korean proposals: that food packages be identified as gifts from the South, that South Koreans be allowed into the North to monitor distribution and that shipments move directly to the North overland through the town of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone on the 1953 cease-fire line.

The talks here are unusual because they are the first direct talks in five years between North and South Korean Red Cross officials. Diplomats are watching the talks closely for indications of how desperate North Korea is for food assistance and how North Korean officials might deal with South Koreans generally as the United States and China attempt to push the two sides into direct peace talks in New York. North Korea has said it will join the talks only if it receives guarantees of food aid and an easing of trade sanctions. A senior North Korean official who recently defected to the South warned that the North Korean leadership is ready to go to war with the South if it does not receive assistance.

Despite the threat of famine, the reclusive North, which fought the South in the 1950-53 Korean War - the two are technically still at war - is believed to oppose the South Korean measures. They would have the effect of stressing to its own citizens the failure of North Korea’s long-cherished policy of self-reliance.

At Monday’s meeting, which ran 2 hours 45 minutes, North Korean Red Cross officials said they could not discuss distribution without knowing the size of the food donation the South Korean Red Cross is planning.

The South Korean side said it can not be certain because the amount of aid will depend on the size of private donations. But South Korean Red Cross officials suggested that assistance could continue for some time.