hankyoreh

The United States said Friday it is willing to talk with North Korea about resuming "significant" food aid to help relieve flood damage, a shift from a decision in 2005 to suspend the assistance due to lack of proper monitoring.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the U.S. expresses "its sincere condolences" to the people of North Korea who suffered loss of life and homes as well as injuries from the recent severe flooding.

"As President (George W.) Bush has noted, the American people are compassionate and concerned about the people of North Korea," he said in a statement.

"Therefore, the United States is prepared to engage with North Korean officials on arrangements for a significant food aid package, including appropriate monitoring procedures."

At least 600 people are dead or missing and some 100,000 others homeless from days of downpours, recorded as the heaviest in 40 years in North Korea. The United Nations is organizing emergency relief to provide the country with food, medicine and other goods.

Casey said North Korea is already reported to be 1 million tons short of food. "The severe August floods have worsened the already desperate situation of the North Korean people," he said.

The U.S. pledged US$100,000 to the U.N.-led efforts through two non-governmental organizations, Mercy Corps and Samaritan's Purse.

Washington stopped food aid at the end of 2005 when Pyongyang forced the U.N. World Food Program to drastically reduce its presence and operations, claiming it had a bumper crop and enough food donations besides those from the U.N. to sustain itself.

The U.S. had only delivered 25,000 tons of food to the North at the time, half of what was promised for the year.

Washington is reaching out to Pyongyang ahead of a critical round of six-nation talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea. In the September round, South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan will discuss disabling Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs and getting the North to declare its entire atomic stockpile. Other governments would provide various economic and political incentives in return. North Korea is poorly equipped to cope with flooding due to serious deforestation. The severe damage caused the second inter-Korean summit to be postponed from late August to early October.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (Yonhap)