NORTHEAST ASIA PEACE AND SECURITY NETWORK ***** SPECIAL REPORT ***** This report is distributed to e-mail participants of the NAPS Network. The following is a collection of excerpts from the regular press briefing given by US State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns on April 15. The excerpts include mainly discussion of the US announcement of new food aid to the DPRK, as well as comments on other DPRK-related issues. The announcement itself was included in the April 16 Daily Report. The transcript was issued by the United States Information Agency (USIA) on April 16. -------------------- STATE DEPARTMENT DAILY PRESS BRIEFING (Excerpts) Washington, DC, April 15, 1997 US State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns briefing. BURNS: My final announcement pertains to North Korea. In response to an expanded appeal targeted specifically towards feeding children, by the United Nations World Food Program, and after consultation with the Republic of Korea and the government of Japan, the United States government has decided to provide humanitarian assistance in the amount of 50,000 metric tons of corn, valued at approximately $15 million, for use in assisting the roughly 2.4 million children under the age of six in North Korea, who we believe are at risk because of the current food shortages. Flooding in 1995 and 1996 destroyed considerable farmland in North Korea. This exacerbated North Korea's chronic food production shortfalls, resulting in very widespread food shortages and malnutrition. The World Food Program estimates this year's shortage at 1.8 to 2.3 million metric tons, or nearly half of North Korea's food needs. The United States government assistance will be in the form of PL 480, Title II emergency food aid. Specifically, the United States government will provide corn to feed nursery and kindergarten-age children under the age of six. The United States government has chosen the World Food Program as the channel for this assistance because of the World Food Program's proven ability to monitor distribution of assistance to ensure that it ends up where it is supposed to end up. Now, this brings the total of U.S. food assistance to North Korea since 1995 to approximately $33.4 million. The United States remains the single largest donor of food assistance to the World Food Program. Let me just give you, if it's of interest -- I think it may be -- some additional background information. On April 3rd, as you'll remember, the World Food Program of the United Nations expanded its outstanding appeal by an additional 100,000 metric tons, which brought its total appeal to 200,000 metric tons, roughly $95.5 million. You know that the United States has already contributed $10 million to this food appeal in February, so our total contribution to both -- to this appeal -- to both parts of it, is $25 million. The World Food Program expanded its appeal following the March visit to North Korea of its executive director, Catherine Bertini. Ms. Bertini found that conditions in North Korea were critical, and that the status of children's health and nutrition, in particular, in North Korea is grave. And the expanded appeal specifically targets, as I said, children under six. Now, we consulted with the World Food Program over the course of the last several weeks, with Japan, and with the Republic of Korea. And we believe this response and the response of our allies and friends around the world will go a long way towards meeting the objectives of the World Food Program. The United States response alone to the entire appeal should constitute just under 40 percent of the tonnage of food commodities that is required, and just over a fourth of the value that is required. Now, our purpose in providing this assistance is solely to respond to the ongoing humanitarian food crisis in North Korea. We've had many discussions with the United Nations, with American non-governmental organizations, with experts -- agricultural experts, and we have information available to us through a variety of means that convinces us that the food situation in North Korea will reach a critical stage this Spring with certain vulnerable groups, especially children, severely at risk. We have already heard reports, credible reports, of death by starvation in the North Korean countryside, and it is our belief that the United States and other countries must respond to this appeal in order to help save those children. We believe that if no further outside assistance were to be forthcoming, malnutrition would become more serious and could lead to more civilian deaths by disease and by starvation. The World Food Program has an effective monitoring system in place in North Korea, working with North Korean government agencies. And you can be sure that we will monitor the distribution of this food aide very carefully, to ensure that it reaches the intended recipients. I think that is all the background information that I wanted to give you, but if you have any more questions about this, I'd be glad to take them. George. Q: There was no mention of tomorrow's meeting on the four-party talks. Could you be more explicit and say there's no linkage between today's announcement and tomorrow's meeting? BURNS: I can certainly do that. We do intend to meet in New York tomorrow: The North Korean Vice Foreign Minister, Kim Gye Gwan, as well as the South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister and their delegations for a tri-lateral meeting. That meeting is to hear the North Korean response to our suggestion, with South Korea, for four-party talks to improve stability in the Korean Peninsula. There is no relationship between the announcement by the United States today on food aide to the political discussions that will take place tomorrow. We view the issue of food for children as a humanitarian issue only. It is not linked to politics, nor should it be. Q: As you're well aware, a congressional delegation recently returned from a trip to North Korea. And while they, in anticipation of this announcement today, were welcoming the Administration's decision to contribute, but were actually asking for a greater amount. It was their assessment that more was required -- that it is, as you said, a very dire situation. I know you just gave a list of the various departments and individuals who were involved in the decision, but how did you reach this amount? Do you feel that this is going to be sufficient for what you view as a problem there? BURNS: Well, we hope so; we certainly hope so. We have to rely on the designated and acknowledged experts here, namely the United Nations and the World Food Program. These are the people that have gone into North Korea time and again over the past couple of years. They're the people who visited the orphanages and the countryside and the farms and the cities to see the depravation of the North Korean people. The World Food Program itself has estimated the needs at roughly 200,000 metric tons of food commodities. The United States is supplying 40 percent of the tonnage, and one-quarter of the value that is needed. That is a highly significant contribution by one state out of all the states around the world who ought to be seriously considering a contribution to this. We do appreciate the views of members of Congress who have returned from North Korea. We've talked to them. We want to learn as much as we can from them, because we don't have U.S. government officials, as you know, stationed in North Korea. We have to rely on the United Nations for this expertise of whether or not this is the right amount of food aid. And we believe we are working with the right organization here. Q: Do you know, though, I mean, based on what has been pledged so far, whether or not the appeal that the World Food Program made has been met? I mean, I don't actually have the figures in front of me but I don't know if this contribution now puts them at the point where they have completed the appeal, or is there more? BURNS: I don't believe that the total appeal has yet been met. I think I have to refer you to the government of South Korea for what it intends to do. I would have to refer you to the government of Japan for what it intends to do. There are many other countries around the world, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, who ought to seriously consider this. Surely we can put politics aside to help children, especially very small children who are at risk. Q: You have mentioned several times that the money will go to children. Is that because that is all the World Food Program is asking for, or is the United States making that specification? BURNS: No, the World Food Program has decided to target its current program on children under six because they believe that that is the segment of the North Korean population that is most at risk, where malnutrition and even death by starvation is taking place right now. So that is the affected group that they want to help and we are very pleased to contribute to that effort. Q: Nick, have any of the first shipments, have any of them arrived yet in North Korea? BURNS: The shipments from the $10 million contribution that we announced in February will arrive in two shipments by two vessels from Houston, Texas, to Nampo, I believe, in the first two weeks of May. Now, we do have arrival schedules, I think, for the fourth, and the second is a week or so beyond that. But arrival schedules are somewhat general and they are targets, so I would think safely to say the first two weeks of May we expect the first two ships to arrive from the United States with the $10 million. We'll now have to go out very quickly and contract for additional ships from the United States to undertake -- first of all, we will have to procure the corn in the United States, and then the transport of the corn to a port in the United States and the shipment by sea. All that will take time. So this $15 million contribution, I think we are talking about food arriving probably as quickly as a couple of months. It does take quite a long time, but all this has been factored in. We do have American food arriving in just a couple of weeks from the first shipment. Q: Is it possible to buy food under this program someplace that is closer so that these people can get the food sooner? BURNS: Well, you know, the World Food Program is obtaining food from a variety of sources so some of the food that will be obtained will be closer to North Korea and, therefore, that food will be used first. But this food shortage is going to continue for many, many months, if not throughout the entire year. So American food will arrive when it can and it will make a difference when it arrives. There are laws that we have to operate under here, P.L. 480, Title II, does, of course, require a purchase of American food commodities in the United States and shipment from the United States to North Korea. But certainly the United Nations can take additional food shipments to make up the immediate needs of the population. Q: Pardon my ignorance and for being late on this briefing, but who will feed the older children and the adults that are malnourished in North Korea? And I have another little aspect of that I would like to ask. BURNS: Bill, this is a very large and diversified effort to try to improve the food situation of the North Korean population. There are other private voluntary organizations, international agencies, that are at work here. There is also bilateral, has been bilateral food assistance in the past from South Korea to North Korea. There are many avenues and channels of distribution. We have chosen the World Food Program because of its effective distribution system and because we, frankly, share the belief that children are the most affected by the current food shortages. Q: The under six-year-old children, are those who will receive U.S. grain, donated U.S. grain? BURNS: That's right, yes. There are roughly 2.4 million children under the age of six who we believe are adversely affected by the food shortages. The 50,000 metric tons of American food will go towards those kids. Q: And then on the other issue of agriculture in North Korea to sustain themselves in the future -- is the U.S. offering any agricultural assistance? BURNS: Not formally, on a government-to-government basis. I know that former President Jimmy Carter has done some work with agronomists in this area, as have a number of American PVOs. Essentially, we believe that the North Korean economic system, the Communist system, is certainly in part to blame for the current economic woes of the country. Communism has failed all over the world. It's failing again in North Korea. The economic system is failing because it doesn't make sense, it doesn't add up. It's never worked anywhere in the world that it's been. That's why China has had to convert its own system to a free- market system, its own economic system. Certainly government inefficiencies have contributed to this. We want to be of help. There is a humanitarian urgency to do so. Q: Could I ask about the timing? If you were to, say, announce this on Thursday, it could be interpreted as a reward for North Korea if they say yes tomorrow to the four-party talks. What would your response be to that? BURNS: Well, you know, we can't -- what we have here is, we have two tracks of issues with North Korea right now. We have the political track, which is our hope that the North Koreans will respond to the four-party talks proposal. And we have this track of a food emergency. Now, we're responding to the timing of the U.N. appeal for food, which was quite recent -- just in the last ten days. We've responded very quickly to this appeal. Frankly, we're mindful that a lot of people think that we're doing this for political reasons. We're not. And to make that very clear, we decided to announce it before the talks started -- before we even knew what the North Korean response would be to the four-party talks proposal. And if the response is negative, the food aide goes forward. If the response is positive, the food aide goes forward. We have to meet humanitarian imperatives before we meet political ones. Q: I assume that it's coincidental that today is Kim Il-song's birthday. BURNS: I wasn't aware of that. He wasn't in my birthday book. Q: But his successor Kim Il-song's successor -- appointed 120 new generals today, according to wire service reports. Does the U.S. have concern about the size, the (inaudible) size of the North Korean military at a time when the world has to provide food? BURNS: I believe the North Korean military is one of the largest standing armies in the world -- over a million troops that face our troops and South Korean troops, just north of the DMZ. That's obviously a concern of the United States. There's no reason for North Korea to have an army that large. North Korea ought to spend more of its time attending to the needs of its own people - - devoting less resources for military purposes, and more for the good of its own people. And frankly, what we hope to achieve in the four-party talks, if we can get the North Koreans to come to the four-party talks, is a series of measures that would further stability in the Peninsula, and ultimately lead to a peace treaty to end the Korean War that the armistice stopped in July 1953. There is no reason to have an army that size on that peninsula. We want peace and stability in the peninsula; and the quicker the army is reduced in size, the easier that will be. But in the meantime, because that army is there, the United States, 37,000 American troops, are joining several hundred thousand Republic of Korea troops to defend the Republic of Korea. And Secretary Albright was over at the L.A. Times editorial board this morning. It was televised so you probably saw it. She said several times the United States has a security commitment to South Korea. We will meet it. We are meeting it today. We will continue to meet it until that threat disappears from the north. --- Q: I want to go back to a North Korean issue. BURNS: Yes. Q: Do you know that Japan's government is still very reluctant to give another food assistance for North Korea? What kind of conversations do you have with the Japanese governments? Actually, what does the United States want Japan to do? BURNS: Well, Japan has to make that decision. Only Japan can make the decision as to whether or not it contributes to the food appeal by the United Nations. We understand that Japan has -- that both the government and many people in Japanese society have a number of concerns about the way that North Korea has treated Japanese citizens in the past, including the alleged abductions of Japanese citizens over the past couple of decades by North Korean agents. That's a very serious matter. At the same time, there is a humanitarian crisis underway in North Korea, particularly affecting children. And we -- Americans believe that that's a very important imperative that has to be considered. [end of transcript excerpts]