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By Kwon Tae-ho, Washington Correspondent　

The United States strongly hinted Tuesday (local time) that it would proceed conditionally with providing food aid to North Korea.

“We do separate humanitarian assistance from political issues” said U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth at a U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing Tuesday with regard to the issue of food aid to North Korea. “We provide food aid when we see a perceived need and in a situation in which we can monitor how the food aid is used, who are the recipients of that food aid, and does it go to the people to whom we intend it.”

Bosworth also said that humanitarian food aid from the United States would be contingent on the satisfaction of three conditions, namely the necessary level of food aid, whether aid is more urgently needed than in other countries, and whether it would be possible to verify that the food is being distributed to the residents who need it.

The same principle is applied for all countries, Bosworth stressed.

While Bosworth’s remarks do not include new information, observers note the fact that the United States strongly stated its intention to provide food aid to North Korea. Although this does not represent a move away from the Barack Obama administration’s previous position, small signs have been detected of a shift in overall emphasis toward the provision of food aid.

By noting that the United States is currently assessing North Korea’s need for aid and plans to engage in subsequent discussions with Pyongyang about the monitoring system, Bosworth also hinted at the possibility of a meeting between the United States and North Korea with regard to the aid issue. However, he also stressed that the U.S. would “not provide food aid without a thorough assessment of actual needs and adequate program management, monitoring, and access provisions to ensure that food aid is not diverted or misused.”

Ten experts with the World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have been in North Korea since last month to investigate the food situation there. The investigation is scheduled to finish around Mar. 15.

While Washington’s decision to provide food aid is motivated in part by humanitarian concerns stemming from the severe food shortage in the country, observers say it also appears to represent an attempt to bring Pyongyang to the table for dialogue and extract a quid-pro-quo arrangement by taking advantage of the recent active efforts from North Korea, which has taken the lead in requesting aid and has said that it would accept monitoring.

Bosworth also said at the hearing, “We do not regard regime change as the outcome of our policy.” He stressed that the Obama administration’s goal in North Korea policy is a change in the behavior of the North Korean leadership toward improved relations rather than a regime change.

The hearing Tuesday showed signs of differing degrees of receptiveness to dialogue with Pyongyang between the administration and Congress. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry suggested talks between the United States and North Korea, noting the need to “launch bilateral talks with North Korea when we decide the time is appropriate.” Expressing the position that maintaining the “status quo” without any actions toward North Korea only gives the country time to develop nuclear weapons, Kerry called for active diplomatic efforts

“We must get beyond the political talking point that engaging North Korea is somehow ‘rewarding bad behavior,’” Kerry added.

However, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell expressed the position that North Korea and South Korea should engage in dialogue first, stating that improvement of inter-Korean relations and meaningful steps toward denuclearization were a precondition for normalization of relations between Washington and Pyongyang.

Campbell said that the U.S. “supports direct talks between the DPRK and the ROK” and that “North-South dialogue is an important initial step toward the resumption of the six-party talks.”

Meanwhile, U.S. State Department Special Advisor for Nonproliferation and Arms Control and U.S. Coordinator for Iran and North Korea Sanctions Robert Einhorn, who is currently in South Korea to discuss matters such as amendment of the South Korea-U.S. nuclear pact, met Wednesday with Wi Sung-lac, Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs with the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, at the Central Government Complex annex on Seoul’s Sejongno Road. Following the meeting, Einhorn said that the two countries were pushing for a United Nations Security Council Presidential Statement to clearly state that North Korea’s uranium enrichment program is in violation of a UNSC resolution and the six-party talks joint statement of Sept. 19, 2005.

This marks the first time the two countries have explicitly stated the goal of a UNSC response through a Presidential Statement. However, the prevailing view among observers is that adoption of such a statement appears unlikely for the time being, as the UNSC presidency this month is being held by China, which is opposed to open UNSC discussions of the issue.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]