U.N. expands food aid to N.Korea; U.S. help arrives

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Programme, which has warned of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea due to a food shortage, said on Monday it reached a deal with Pyongyang to rapidly expand aid, and that a U.S. ship carrying wheat had arrived.

Flooding last year, higher commodity prices and political wrangling with major donor South Korea have pushed North Korea to a food shortfall similar to ones it faced about a decade ago when famine killed an estimated 1 million people, experts have said.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said the agreement it reached with the North will allow it to expand its operation, previously aimed at feeding 1.2 million people, to feed more than 5 million in the country of about 23 million.

"It will make all the difference in the world to those 3 or 4 million or people who are now going to get food aid who were not getting it before and didn't have enough to eat," said Tony Banbury, WFP Asia regional director.

North Korea also allowed the WFP to place more international aid workers on the ground and expand its operations to a greater number of counties in the impoverished country. The WFP estimates as many as 6 million North Koreans need food aid.

The aid deal and arrival of U.S. help come days after North Korea made a symbolic commitment to an international disarmament pact by blowing up the cooling tower at its plutonium-producing nuclear plant, and provided documents on its nuclear programmes.

The United States said in May it would provide 500,000 tonnes of food to North Korea in a sign of improving cooperation. Washington will supply 400,000 tonnes via the WFP while U.S. non-governmental organisations will distribute 100,000 tonnes.

The WFP said the first U.S. ship carrying aid arrived on Sunday in Nampo, a port that serves Pyongyang, with a cargo of 37,000 tonnes of wheat.