South Korea may delay rice aid to North: Report

Seoul, Apr 16: South Korea may delay resuming massive rice aid to North Korea after Pyongyang missed a deadline to start shutting its nuclear reactor under a disarmament deal, a local daily reported today.

South Korean officials have said they were planning to announce the resumption of rice aid to its perennially food-short neighbour during an inter-Korean economic meeting that starts tomorrow and ends on Saturday.

Over the weekend, top officials decided they could delay the shipment of 400,000 tonnes of rice unless Pyongyang moves by the end of the talks to shut down the reactor, its source of weapons-grade plutonium, the Chosun Ilbo reporters.

The paper cited officials as saying Seoul has also cancelled its initial contracts to buy 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil that North Korea was to have received in return for starting to shut down its Soviet-era reactor.

South Korea is reworking the terms of its oil purchase and shipment to the North, it said.

Government officials declined to comment on the report.

North Korea, which does not produce enough electricity to light its cities at night, agreed at six-way talks in February to start shutting down its reactor by April 14 and allow U.N.

nuclear inspectors back in the country in return for the fuel aid.

South Korea suspended its regular humanitarian assistance to North Korea last year in response to its missile test in July and first nuclear test in October.

North Korea, which some estimates said lost about 10 per cent of its nearly 23 million people to famine in the 1990s, falls about 1 million tonnes short of what it needs to feed its people in the years it has a good harvest, experts said.

Reuters