The United States would consider resuming food aid for North Korea to resume food aid stalled since 2009, provided Pyongyang allowed US staff inside the isolated country to monitor its distribution.

The US provided food aid to North Korea in 2008         Source: baobinhphuoc.com.vn

US ambassador Robert King, special envoy for North Korean human rights, said that the US’s policy in providing humanitarian assistance is based on conditions of need, but any such requests would have to be balanced against demands from other countries as well as US’s ability to monitor the delivery of that assistance. The United States last provided food aid to North Korea from late 2008 to March 2009. Some 170,000 tonnes of an expected 500,000 tonnes of food aid were delivered, until Pyongyang expelled the US workers who had been monitoring the distribution.