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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| North Korea requests fertilizer aid |
| 2006-02-10 |
| Impoverished North Korea has requested 150,000 tons of fertilizer from South Korea, months after the communist nation demanded that the U.N. World Food Program halt emergency food shipments, an official said Thursday. The North requested last week that South Korea begin delivering the fertilizer by the end of the month in time for spring, said South Korean Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo. The Seoul government "plans to determine its position after reviewing various situations, taking necessary procedures," Rhee told reporters. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that the North asked for an additional 300,000 tons to be delivered later in the year. Government officials said they couldn't confirm the report. South Korea has periodically sent the North rice and fertilizer. Last year, it sent 500,000 tons of rice and 350,000 tons of fertilizer. From 1999 through 2005, South Korea sent nearly 2 million tons of fertilizer to the North, Rhee said. The appeal for aid comes after the North said its food situation had improved and demanded an end to international food aid, instead requesting long-term development assistance. North Korea has relied on foreign handouts to feed its 23 million people since disclosing in the mid-1990s that state-run farms had collapsed after the loss of Soviet assistance and decades of mismanagement. A resulting famine is believed to have killed 2 million people. In December, the WFP shut down its programs that had been feeding some 6 million North Koreans, also halting the intensive monitoring that was requested by international donors to ensure the food reached those in need. South Korean food aid — delivered directly to the North Korean government rather than through international aid groups — comes with less stringent monitoring requirements, raising concern that it might be diverted to the communist regime's military or elite. However, the South Korean government insists its donations are delivered to ordinary citizens. South Korea's fertilizer aid "has greatly helped North Korea enhance its agricultural productivity and improve its food situation," Rhee said Thursday. The North's appeal comes amid deadlocked international efforts to persuade the communist country to abandon its nuclear ambitions. The talks, which involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, have made no progress in implementing a breakthrough agreement in September in which the North pledged to end its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and security assurances. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #14 Want some diesel to go with your fertilizer? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-02-10 13:32 |
| #13 Why don't they use Rodong Sinmun editorials? |
| Posted by: Whomotch Ebbereck3593 2006-02-10 13:17 |
| #12 We'll be happy to air drop of several thousand tons of ammonium nitrate, complete with Deisel fuel slurry, directly over North Korea's major military installations. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-02-10 11:49 |
| #11 It is a sad man that views being in deep shit as an improvement in his position. |
| Posted by: RWV 2006-02-10 10:40 |
| #10 Impoverished North Korea has requested 150,000 tons of fertilizer from South Korea, months after the communist nation demanded that the U.N. World Food Program halt emergency food shipments, an official said Thursday. Don't they have plutonium? Use that instead. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2006-02-10 09:36 |
| #9 The boot you lick is the boot that kicks. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-02-10 08:37 |
| #8 Send them all the fertilizer that they want. AFTER they pay for it, in gold. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2006-02-10 08:31 |
| #7 Then there's the strange desire to "join" somehow with one's ancestors and howl at the moon... or sumthin'... |
| Posted by: .com 2006-02-10 07:28 |
| #6 bgrebel - Because the Norks have a long list of S.Korean politicos who they've compromised with bribes. |
| Posted by: Elmains Spomomp5231 2006-02-10 07:20 |
| #5 jummah was born to produce fertilizer. |
| Posted by: RD 2006-02-10 05:59 |
| #4 Send Jimmah. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-02-10 05:12 |
| #3 Today they ask for fertilizer, tomorrow detonators... |
| Posted by: Jake-the-Peg 2006-02-10 04:46 |
| #2 So why doesn't South Korea man up and stop giving North Korea the aid. It would lead to regime change much quicker. |
| Posted by: bgrebel 2006-02-10 01:49 |
| #1 I thought there was enough happy horsesh*t up there. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2006-02-10 01:46 |