韓美, 北 식량지원 공감대.. 멈춰선'비핵화 대화'견인하나?
In his phone call earlier this week with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed support for sending food aid to North Korea.
Now, the big question is whether this gesture of food for North Korea will help bring it back to talks.
Time will tell, but in the mean time, South Korea has started the process of getting the aid ready, which includes deciding how much to send.
Our Lee Ji-won has more.
As South Korea and the U.S. reaffirmed their support for food aid to North Korea, Seoul has announced its plans to begin reviewing the process of sending the aid.
A key Blue House official told reporters Wednesday that it is now starting to review the humanitarian food aid to the North.
Seoul's Unification Ministry also said that it will proceed with the aid, through close coordination with the international community.
But it added that it's not yet at a stage to share how much aid will be given or how it will be delivered.
The United Nations World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization conducted an on-site assessment in April,... and according to that assessment, 10 million people, about 40-percent of North Korea's population, are suffering from food shortages caused by heatwaves, floods and landslides.
Roughly 1-point-4 million tons of food aid is said to be needed.
North Korea also requested support from international organizations.
Up until 2016, South Korea had, through international organizations including the World Food Programme, been providing the North with aid worth an annual average of 11-point-8 million U.S. dollars.
The current Moon administration had also planned to provide the North with aid worth 8 million U.S. dollars through UNICEF and the World Food Programme in 2017.
But due to increased tensions with the North that year,... the plan was never carried out,... and was eventually scrapped.
And now with South Korea and the U.S. showing willingness and support in providing the North with food assistance, there are hopes that this could lead to some progress in the current stalemate between Pyeongyang and Washington.
However, experts are skeptical about whether this could actually bring the North back to the negotiating table, and lead to a breakthrough in the denuclearization talks.
"The humanitarian aid was already an exemption from the UN sanctions. Providing the North with food assistance is not significant enough to change the North's attitude."
The expert however added that North Korea previously responded to the food aid with humanitarian inter-Korean exchanges such as reunions for separated families.
Thus, with inter-Korean exchanges at a standstill, the aid may be able to spark something on that front.
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.
