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A group of U.S. government officials are in North Korea to discuss providing food aid to the North, while the South Korean government has maintained its stance of only resuming humanitarian aid to North Korea if the North asks for assistance.

Kurtis Cooper, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, was reported to have said that about five U.S. officials will stay in Pyongyang for an unspecified amount of time. While there, they will try to come to agreement with North Korea on how to guarantee that American food aid can be delivered to North Koreans who really need it. Cooper told the Associated Press that the United States has continued to discuss the issue with North Korea, but that no conclusive agreement had yet been reached.

“We have no decision to announce beyond our statement of Aug. 31, 2007, in which we indicated a willingness to provide significant humanitarian assistance based on three existing criteria: the level of need, availability of supplies in view of other needs worldwide and the ability to ensure that aid is reliably reaching the people in need,” Cooper was quoted as saying in an AP article dated May 6.

So far, the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush has been in talks with North Korea on how to monitor the distribution of its food aid, after informing the North of its intention to provide 500,000 tons of food via the World Food Program. That amount of food aid from the United States, which accounts for some 10 percent of annual grain consumption in North Korea, would be the largest aid package given to the North by the U.S. government since 1999.

Meanwhile, a high-ranking South Korean government official said, “The government’s basic stance is that it is pushing ahead with humanitarian aid to North Korea regardless of the North Korean nuclear issue.” But, the South Korean official said, “If the North asks the South to offer food aid, the government will review it under humanitarian terms. By international standards, including countries belonging to the United Nations, the provision of humanitarian aid necessitates a request from a recipient. So, the government is waiting for such request from the North,” the South Korean official said.

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