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A group of European Union officials will visit North Korea next month to assess the food situation in the impoverished state after a similar trip by US officials, a report said on Sunday. Officials from the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) group will head to Pyongyang after the US team wraps up a probe into the North's food needs this week, Yonhap news agency said, citing a Seoul government source. "The international community for now is evaluating the North's food conditions and is not discussing in earnest resumption of food aid yet," Yonhap quoted the official as saying. The US delegation, led by Robert King, Washington's special envoy on the North's human rights, arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday. King left the North on Saturday after securing a release of a Korean American detained there for months, but several officials will stay until Thursday to tour the state and investigate its food needs. Washington is likely to reach a decision on resuming food aid to Pyongyang after the European officials finish their own two-week tour, said the source quoted by Yonhap. The North, where hundreds of thousands died in a famine in the 1990s, suffers chronic food shortages and has partly relied on aid from overseas. Meanwhile, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il and his son and heir apparent celebrated the "successful" outcome of his trip to China last week, state media said on Sunday, without elaborating on what was achieved. The North held art performances celebrating the accomplishments of his visit and watched by Kim and his youngest son, Jong-un, as well as senior officials of the country, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency said without saying when it took place. AFP |
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