Washington, DC - Andrew S. Natsios, Administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), issued the following statement today:
"Although the United States remains deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in North Korea, USAID will be obliged to suspend procurement and delivery of the balance of its food aid commitment to the country for calendar year 2005 if the United Nations World Food Program is forced to end its distribution activities as announced or further curtail its monitoring capacity. The United States has provided about 2 million tons of food aid to North Korea through the WFP since 1995.
"On August 29, 2005, the North Korean Government informed the WFP that it expected all humanitarian assistance work of international organizations in the country to be terminated by the end of 2005. The government maintained that the humanitarian situation in the country had "drastically improved" in recent years, so such assistance was no longer needed. WFP has informed the donor community that its distribution activities in North Korea will end in the middle of November.
"On June 15, 2005, the United States committed to provide 50,000 metric tons of food through the WFP for its emergency feeding operation for vulnerable populations in North Korea. Approximately half of that commitment has either already been delivered to North Korea and distributed by the WFP or is in the process of being transported. The balance was scheduled to be procured beginning later this month. If the WFP operation is no longer in place, with its full complement of international staff, there will be no way to even minimally assure that this food gets to its intended recipients."
The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years. For more information on USAID, visit: http://www.usaid.gov.
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