North Korea warns against outside aid

October 5, 2000
Web posted at: 5:03 AM HKT (2103 GMT)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea on Wednesday warned against the dangers of outside aid, calling it a "toxin" that could threat the survival of the isolated communist state.

The remark came as U.N. relief agencies were urging international donors for new food aid to avert mass famine in North Korea.

South Korea began shipments of $100 million worth of food to North Korea on Wednesday.

"The imperialists' aid is a tool of aggression ... a dangerous toxin which brings about poverty, famine and death, not prosperity," said Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the North's ruling Workers Party of Korea.

Rodong did not specifically target U.N. food aid. It criticized the policies of the United States and other Western countries it accused of using aid to gain political control over foreign countries.

"The United States gives dollars to those countries suffering from financial shortage, technology to those countries backward in technology and food to those countries lacking food in the name of aid, and instead forces the introduction of American way of democracy and human rights," Rodong said in a commentary.

The commentary was carried by the North's official foreign news outlet, KCNA, which was monitored in Seoul.

With its economy in shambles, North Korea is slowly opening up its closed society. It has established diplomatic ties with Australia, Italy and the Philippines this year.

It also is negotiating to improve ties with the United States and Japan.

Also Wednesday, a South Korean freighter loaded with 22,000 tons of corn left the Chinese port of Dalian, carrying the first batch of a 500,000-ton food loan the South promised to the North last week, said officials at Seoul's Pumyang Shipping Co.

It would take at least three months to complete the $100 million shipments, Seoul officials said. South Korea plans to ship 300,000 tons of Thai rice and 200,000 tons of Chinese corn for the loan.

The Rome-based World Food Program launched another appeal for food aid for the hunger-stricken communist state last month, saying nearly 8 million of its 22 million population would be short of food unless donors come up with $100 million.

North Korea has said it has lost more than 1.4 million tons of grain because of drought, heat waves and tropical storms this year.

During high-level talks in August, North Korea asked South Korea for 1 million tons of grain.

North Korea is now in its sixth-consecutive year of food shortages because of drought, floods and economic mismanagement. Hundreds of thousands of people have died.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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