[USFK Forums] N. Korea asks for fertilizer amid nuclear stalemate: official [Yonhap]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Thursday, February 9, 2006

(LEAD) N. Korea asks for fertilizer aid amid nuclear stalemate:official

2006/02/09 17:46

SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- Despite its continued boycott of international negotiations over its nuclear weapons programs, North Korea asked South Korea to provide nearly half a million tons of fertilizer for free, Seoul's top official on North Korean affairs said Thursday.

Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo said the government was considering all factors related to the provision, but hinted it is soon expected to meet the request.

"For your information, the North has requested fertilizer (every year) through ministerial and Red Cross talks since 1999," Rhee said at a regular press briefing.

The vice unification minister has been acting as the country's point man on North Korea since former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young resigned late last year to run for chairmanship of the ruling Uri Party. Unification Minister-designate Lee Jong-seok was expected to be appointed this week following a two-day parliamentary confirmation hearing earlier in the week.

The North's request came in a Feb. 1 message to Han Wan-sang, the head of South Korea's National Red Cross, in which the impoverished communist state requested that it first be provided with 150,000 tons of fertilizer starting at the end of the month for its spring crops, according to Rhee.

The message also included a request for the South to consider providing an additional 300,000 tons of fertilizer after spring, ministry officials said.

The country has provided more than 1.9 million tons of free fertilizer to the North since 1999, according to the vice minister.

The request comes in the midst of the North's prolonged boycott of the nuclear disarmament talks that also involve South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States.

Pyongyang is threatening to stay away from the talks until Washington lifts its sanctions on a Macau-based bank suspected of aiding the North launder counterfeit U.S. dollars printed in the communist state.

Seoul and other dialogue partners have been working to bring Pyongyang back to the negotiations, but the vice unification minister said the government will not link its assistance to the nuclear talks, saying the aid will be strictly humanitarian.

"Provision of fertilizer has taken place regularly since 1999, and it was provided from a humanitarian point of view," Rhee said at the briefing. "Anyway, the government has been providing fertilizer to the North from a humanitarian perspective, and its provision has never been linked to other issues, at least explicitly."
Millions of North Koreans are believed to have died since a nationwide food shortage hit in the 1990s, but the country is unable to produce a sufficient amount of food even to date, mainly due to a lack of fertilizer and machinery.

"The current situation makes it possible for people to suspect a number of possibilities, but the basic stance of the government is that it will not link fertilizer to other issues," Rhee said.

The nuclear dispute erupted in late 2002 when the U.S. accused the North of trying to develop nuclear arms. Five rounds of the nuclear talks have been held since then, but the talks have been stalled since a November meeting with no date set for its resumption.

bdk@yna.co.kr


(END)