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TechnoratiHowever many people have criticized the “sunshine policy” for its unconditional support of an autocratic tyrant without any demands for change.
On Monday, the Unification Ministry in Seoul reported that North Korea refused corn aid from South Korea despite its acute food shortages, according to Bloomberg news. North Korean officials did not say why they declined the aid offer, the South Korean official said.
Also on Monday, the United Nations said it came to a new agreement with the communist state to feed more than 5 million people in the country. Among the contributors are five U.S. aid agencies that will deliver 100,000 tons of food over the next 12 months to feed more than a half-million people.
``This is a breakthrough program: the first U.S. bilateral food assistance to North Korea in eight years,'' Nancy Lindborg, president of Mercy Corps, which is co-leading the U.S. effort, in a statement.
The other agencies include Global Resource Services and the Christian groups World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, and Christian Friends of Korea.
The United States is the largest donor to the World Food Program’s current aid program in North Korea, having pledged $38.9 million, according to the Washington Post.
International aid agencies are warning that North Korea may face another food shortage like the one in the mid-1990’s where as many as 1 million people died from starvation.
