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| North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, speaks while inspecting a newly built submarine to be deployed soon, at an unknown location in North Korea, in this undated photo provided July 23 by the North Korean government. AP-Yonhap |
By Kim Yoo-chul
Citing joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises scheduled next month, North Korea notified a World Food Program (WFP) liaison office in Pyongyang that the North won't accept 50,000 tons of rice aid donated by Seoul through the United Nations organization, a unification ministry official said, Wednesday.
"Last week, North Korea notified the WFP liaison office in Pyongyang that it would not accept food assistance from the South via the WFP. As it wasn't clear whether a high-ranking government official was involved, we are still checking the authentication of the notification," the official told reporters.
The refusal came after a senior presidential aide said Seoul was going ahead with a scheduled joint military drill with Washington despite growing threats by North Korea to boycott working-level talks with the United States aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear program.
In a forum, Choi Jong-kun, a presidential secretary for peace planning, said U.S. President Donald Trump "didn't promise" the cancellation of the upcoming joint military exercises. "If he (Trump) had done that, then we would have been consulted and organized it." The two allies could cancel the drills in consideration of Pyongyang's demands, but defense ministry officials said military interoperability would never be compromised.
North Korea earlier said if the joint drills were held, they would affect the upcoming working-level talks with the United States.
The unification ministry official said the de facto refusal was "very rare" because the North hasn't refused food aid through international organizations such as the WFP before. The WFP is the food-assistance branch of the U.N. and the world's largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and poverty, and promoting food security.
With approval from the United States, South Korea was in the final stages of deciding on the logistics of delivery and distribution with the WFP.
Seoul had also promised to donate $12 million to the WFP to help address the food shortage in North Korea.
"The government hopes to send the rice as planned because, basically, the food provision plan is humanitarian support to help North Korean citizens better fight drought and hunger," another unification ministry official said, adding the South is planning to complete the delivery of 50,000 tons of rice to the WFP by the end of September as scheduled.
