U.S. to decide on aid talks with N. Korea

SEOUL, South Korea – The United States will decide soon whether to send officials to North Korea for talks on Pyongyang’s urgent request for food aid, a senior U.S. envoy said today.

The U.S. suspended food shipments to North Korea in 2009 after monitors were expelled. Activists and humanitarians, however, have recently urged Washington to resume shipments, saying the North’s need is even worse following summer floods and a harsh winter.

South Korean media have reported that the United States plans to send its envoy for North Korean human rights, Robert King, to Pyongyang next week to discuss how to make sure any aid gets to the hungry and not to the North’s military and elite.

“We’ll be making a decision on (King’s visit) in the next few days, and it will be announced from Washington,” Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special envoy for North Korea policy, told reporters.