— A U.S. government team flew to North Korea to assess food shortages Tuesday, while the country’s reclusive leader Kim Jong Il reportedly traveled to an eastern China city on a visit aimed at studying Beijing’s economic reforms.
The delegation led by Robert King, U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, departed Beijing for Pyongyang for a five-day visit to verify food supply surveys conducted by the United Nations and U.S.-based charities and see if there are ways to monitor aid distribution.
North Korea asked for food assistance in January after summer floods and during a bitter winter that hit staple crops. While humanitarian organizations say aid is urgently needed, the U.S., like other international donors, distrusts the secretive North Korean government, which has pursued illicit nuclear weapons and missile programs despite its dire food shortages.
A U.N. World Food Program assessment released two months ago found more than 6 million of North Korea’s 23 million people were in urgent need of aid. It said the North’s public distribution system would run out of food between May and July.
South Korea is skeptical that North Korea’s situation is so dire and suspects the government is stockpiling food secretly ahead of the 2012 centennial of the birth of the communist nation’s founder, Kim Il Sung
While King’s trip was announced well in advance, virtually nothing is known about the agenda for Kim’s visit to his country’s most important ally, which began Friday night. Beijing and Pyongyang delay publicity about Kim’s visits until after he has crossed back into North Korea.
South Korea’s Yonhap News agency said Kim arrived in the ancient capital of Nanjing from nearby Yangzhou, where he reportedly visited an industrial park and a shopping center on Monday.
Kim is also believed to have met with Vice President Xi Jinping, who is expected to be China’s next leader, and former President Jiang Zemin, and is expected to also travel to Shanghai.
Unusually for China, Premier Wen Jiabao has confirmed that Kim is in the country, saying China invited him to study and hopefully adopt Beijing’s market-oriented reforms that have transformed the economy into the world’s second largest.
