Posted on 06/05/2011 6:54:36 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
U.S. won’t donate good food to North, says King
June 04, 2011
Robert King, a U.S. special envoy who traveled to North Korea last week, said Wednesday that if the United States restarts food aid to the communist country, it’s not going to send good stuff that would be diverted to the military, including rice.
“The kinds of food we provide would be the kinds of foods that are less desirable for the elite, for the military,” King told the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday. “For example, we would not provide rice. We would focus on some kind of nutrition program to provide other kinds of food that would be harder to divert.”
King, Washington’s envoy on human rights issues, led the U.S. food assessment team to Pyongyang on May 24, amid growing speculation that the United States is taking a preliminary step to resume food aid to the North, which was suspended in 2009 over monitoring issues.
King wrapped up his visit to the North, the first by a high-ranking U.S. emissary since December 2009, on May 28 with the U.S. food team remaining for further research until Thursday.
King said no conclusion has yet been made as to whether there is a legitimate humanitarian need for food assistance in the North. A World Food Program report in March, which said there was urgent need for food aid for the North Korean people, has been doubted by some people.
King said the North will also have to address questions about past U.S. food aid. The United States is seeking information from the North about 20,000 tons of food it previously provided, which the North distributed on its own after expelling international monitors in March 2009.
To better ensure fair distribution, he said Washington would not deliver all of the assistance in bulk if it decides to resume aid, and would send Korean-speaking supervisors.
Seoul has expressed concern that the North would stockpile any aid given to be used next year, when it marks the 100th anniversary of founder Kim Il Sung’s birth.
South Korea opposes Washington resuming aid, but has tried to keep quiet about it. In Washington, King disclosed Seoul’s disagreement with the idea.
“They would prefer that we not provide food assistance,” he said. “On the other hand, they allowed NGOs in South Korea to provide food on their own.”
King’s visit to the North was rare considering his status as an envoy on human rights issues, and started a guessing game as to whether the North would be willing to discuss human rights.
King said he talked to Kim Kye-gwan, the North’s first vice foreign minister, about human rights for 20 minutes, and Kim invited him back to the North for more discussions.
But a diplomatic source told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday that the North described King publicly as a U.S. State Department representative, without mentioning human rights or food.
By Moon Gwang-lip, Kang Chan-ho [joe@joongang.co.kr]
We may give them food. We need to do study on the matter. Even if we give food, we would only give them crap, by a small amount at a time.
LOL. This would pop Chia Head's blood vessels.
P!
beans, corn meal, oil and sugar- or an artificial mix of all - the basics to sustain life-what is offered by NGO’s in many refugee camps
It beats tree bark soup
Not sure why anything donated would make it to the people though, when the regime has long used food as a means of control
What kinds of food can’t the military eat?
American MRI’s ?
Come on this is stupid.
Any food we send, the military will get first option, and they will eat it.Sustenance for the civilian is sustenance for the military.
Suggest Pfizer (PFE) ship large quantities of Sudafed.
Is he implying that in North Korea rice is a luxury item? It’s hard to think of any more basic foodstuff, unless it’s raw wheat or other unrefined grain.
are we freaking stupid? why the heck are we giving these people anything at all?
I would suggest huge shipments of D-con biscuits. They are yummy and can be carried in their pockets for quick nourishment.
Foggy Bottom needs an enema.
There are WW2 stories of German EPWs almost rioting when first
given US Military rations. They could not believe that's what the
US Army lived on. Probably the 5 or 10-in-1 stuff.
They have no tree bark, then Let them eat organic arugula, says Michelle.
Neither of the above prove to be any reason or rational to feed a regime who's stated goal is the killing of Americans and the destruction of America.
Rice is a big deal for Koreans. If the leadership isn’t starving they’ll likely pass on something like beans, but they won’t pass up rice.
What kinds of food can’t the military eat?
I’m thinking they have in mind the massive order of malnutrition bars and malnutrition porridges the US, France and UNICEF ordered for Haiti.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy’nut
http://www.reach-partnership.org/partnership/REACHpartners
Cuba isn’t much better, men in their late 30s there look like they’re in their 60s.
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