hankyoreh

A U.S. State Department official visited South Korea to assess North Korea's food situation amid reports of a worsening food shortage in the communist state, a government source here said Thursday.

Mark Phelan, an analyst in food security at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, spent two days in Seoul from Monday for talks with related Unification Ministry officials and aid activists, the source said.

During Tuesday's meeting, ministry officials predicted North Korea's chronic food shortage will worsen this year due to soaring international grain prices. It remains uncertain whether the new conservative South Korean government will send the annual 400,000-500,000 tons of fertilizer aid to the North this year, the officials were quoted as saying. Phelan agreed with the view, the source said.

The U.S. official made a stopover in Shenyang, northeast China, to study the food trade between North Korea and China before flying to Seoul, according to local media reports.

Washington reportedly intends to send 500,000 tons of food aid to the impoverished North in line with a six-party agreement on denuclearizing the communist state signed in February last year.

However, Pyongyang's refusal to accept monitoring by U.S.

officials of food distribution has been hampering any implementation of the plan, according to reports.

The U.S. sent State Department officials to South Korea in spring and fall last year to investigate North Korea's food situation.

Also on Thursday, a Seoul-based aid group said North Korea has suspended state food rations in its main grain belts, including South Hwanghae Province, and reduced them even in the capital in recent months amid worsening food shortages.

The World Food Programme has warned that North Korea could face its worst food shortage in years because of last year's severe floods, coupled with winter drought and soaring international grain prices.

North Korea has heavily depended on international aid to help feed its 23 million population since the mid-1990s, when it was badly hit by a series of droughts and floods.

SEOUL, March 20 (Yonhap)