The U.N. food agency said Friday it will deliver emergency aid to North Koreans affected by last month's heavy flooding after the communist nation reversed its previous refusal to accept international help, AP REPORTED. The World Food Program is sending 150 tons of wheat flour and vegetable oil to feed 13,000 people for a month in North Korea's Songchon county, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the capital, Pyongyang, Beijing-based WFP spokesman Gerald Bourke told The Associated Press. Heavy rains in mid-July caused severe floods in impoverished North Korea, but the government initially told international agencies operating there that it would handle the disaster on its own and didn't want them to launch an appeal on its behalf. The North's official media said the disaster killed «hundreds» without providing specifics, but a South Korean aid group has claimed the casualty toll is much higher at nearly 58,000 dead and missing. Bourke said he had no detailed information on casualties from the disaster as the WFP doesn't compile such figures. The North told the WFP last week it was willing to accept aid, Bourke said, reversing its earlier refusal of the agency's offer. «We kept the offer there and it has now been accepted,» Bourke said. «We are open to other requests.» North Korea also told South Korea this week it would accept emergency aid, and the countries' Red Cross societies were to meet Saturday at the North's Diamond Mountain tourist resort to discuss details. Last year, the North called for a halt to international aid, claiming it didn't want to create a culture of dependency. However, the country still accepted Chinese and South Korean assistance, which comes with much less stringent monitoring than required by the WFP to ensure the needy are receiving the aid. South Korea refused to discuss regular aid to the North in July after the country test-launched a barrage of missiles over international objections and maintained its boycott of talks on its nuclear weapons program. In the wake of the floods, Seoul decided to offer emergency aid but said its policy to suspend regular aid was still in place. Earlier this year, the WFP and North Korea agreed on a smaller two-year program to feed 1.9 million people at a cost of US$102 million (¤80 million). The agency had previously fed some 6 million North Koreans a year. Bourke said the new emergency relief would be subject to complete monitoring as are all WFP deliveries in North Korea. The food is being moved from a reserve already in place in the North in case of emergency. However, Bourke said the new two-year food program was severely underfunded, with only some 8 percent donated so far of the amount needed. «There are significant ongoing requirements for food aid in (North Korea), which have increased as a result of the flooding,» Tony Banbury, WFP's regional director for Asia, said in a statement.
