The Washington Post is reporting US food aid to North Korea has been suspended:

Some 400,000 tons of food aid the U.S. government had promised North Korea through the UN World Food Programme this year have been on hold since August because it is impossible to monitor where the food goes, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

In May, the U.S. announced a plan to give 500,000 tons of food aid — 400,000 tons through the WFP and 100,000 tons through U.S. NGOs — to help starving North Koreans. The food aid through the NGOs, including a shipment of 25,000 tons of corn and beans that arrived in the North on Nov. 23, has been underway.

But after 118,270 tons of food aid was delivered until August, further shipments through the WFP have been suspended due to dispute with the North over the distribution monitoring system. [Chosun Ilbo]

However the World Food Program is saying North Korea is meeting their obligations:

“The North Koreans are fulfilling their obligations under agreements with the WFP and the U.S. government,” Tony Banbury, Asia director for the WFP, said. “We just no longer have food to deliver, and that is risking the cooperation we have been receiving from the North.”

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood was quoted as saying his government “seeks to fully implement the terms of the food aid agreement with North Korea, which included agreed-upon improvements in monitoring and access conditions that are necessary to effectively ensure food is reaching those most in need.”

But the paper said U.S. officials disagree with North Korea over the issues of increasing the number of U.S. staff to monitor food distribution and dispatch monitors who can speak Korean.

I have to wonder if the US government is using the food aid to pressure the North Koreans to cut a deal at the on going nuclear talks if this report is true?  However, keep in mind this is not the first time the US has stopped food aid to North Korea because of improper monitoring.  It has been long suspected much of the food aid is being funneled to the North Korean military.

I have conflicted feelings about denying food aid to North Korea because I don’t like the idea of using food as a weapon.  On the other hand, giving North Korea international food aid just encourages the regime to not to use its own money to feeds its own citizens.  Clearly if the regime has enough money to continue constructing a huge waste of money like the Ryugyong Hotel then it has enough money to buy food for its own people.  I don’t see where the international community has an obligation to feed the citizens of a nation where the government is unwilling to spend its own money to feed its own people.

Like I said I have conflicted feelings on this.  Anyone else have any thoughts on the food aid issue?