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US Mulling Decision to Send Envoy to North Korea

   VOA News  May 17, 2011
   North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il inspecting the Pyongyang Vegetable
   Science Institute in Pyongyang, March 4, 2011

Photo: AFP

   North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il inspecting the Pyongyang Vegetable
   Science Institute in Pyongyang, March 4, 2011

   A high-ranking U.S. diplomat says Washington will soon decide whether
   to send a representative to North Korea to discuss the communist
   regime's urgent request for food aid.
   Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea, made the
   comments Tuesday in Seoul after talks with Wi Sung-lac, South Korea's
   chief delegate to the six-nation negotiations with the North about its
   atomic weapons program.
   South Korea's Yonhap news agency has reported that Robert King, the
   U.S. special envoy on North Korea's human rights, will travel to
   Pyongyang next week to determine the extent of the country's food
   crisis. Bosworth says the decision will be announced from Washington
   "in the next few days."
   The United Nations says about six million North Koreans are in urgent
   need of food aid. The regime has largely depended on international food
   donations since the 1990s, when natural disasters led to a widespread
   famine.
   Some officials in South Korea suspect North Korea wants to stockpile
   food ahead of national celebrations next year marking the 100th
   anniversary of the birth of founder Kim Il-sung.
   The United States suspended food shipments to North Korea in 2009 after
   Pyongyang expelled humanitarian aid groups.

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