State Department spokesman Sean McCormack (pictured) says that a US team recently travelled to North Korea to assess how best to continue providing aid. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - THE United States says it will continue food aid to North Korea despite stalled nuclear disarmament talks.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack says that a US team recently travelled to North Korea to assess how best to continue providing aid.
He said on Tuesday the United States will soon send 21,000 metric tonnes of new food.
North Korea has relied on foreign assistance to feed its people since natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its economy in the middle of the 1990s.
Six-nation disarmament talks in Beijing earlier this month ended in a stalemate over the North's refusal to put into writing any commitments on inspecting its past nuclear activities.
The United States has not linked humanitarian aid to those talks. -- AP
