NORTH Korea acknowledged yesterday the delivery of the first instalment of Red Cross food aid from South Korea, saying the food was properly distributed, according to a report from Pyongyang.
"The first instalment of 50,000 tonnes of food was delivered to the northern half of Korea from South Korea from June 12th to 19th accordance with the agreement, reached by the interKorean Red Cross organisations," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), monitored in Tokyo, said.
"The South Phyongan and Jagang provincial committees of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Red Cross Society expressed thanks to the federation of Korean industries and other South Korean organisations for having sent food out of the compatriotic love and humanitarian stand," Pyongyang's news agency said.
"The food delivered to the northern part of Korea was distributed to the relevant areas as hoped" by the donors, it said.
The initial transfer of 11,200 tonnes of food aid to the starving north was made by train via China, to be followed by 1,000 tonnes of corn and 100,000 cases of instant noodles that were shipped out of the southern port city of Pusan yesterday.
The delivered food is a part of 50,000 tonnes promised before the end of July by South Korea's Red Cross at aid talks in Beijing last month.
South Korea said yesterday it was awaiting - but was not very hopeful of a speedy response from North Korea on whether it would attend preparatory peace talks this month.
"We had expected North Korea to give a formal reply over the weekend, but they did not do that. Instead North Korea came up with a new food related demand in a brief telephone contact in New York," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
President Clinton said at the summit of industrialised powers in Denver on Sunday that he was "hopeful" about prospects for four party talks, with North and South Korea, the US and China. "I am fairly optimistic now," he said, citing North Korea's tentative agreement to hold a meeting to determine conditions for the peace process.
Mr Clinton also promised to do, more to ease the food shortages ink North Korea and said other leaders who attended the Summit of the Eight were prepared to follow suit.