Second US food aid shipment arrives in North Korea

SEOUL (AFP) — A second shipment of US food aid has arrived in North Korea, state media said Tuesday, days after the UN food agency warned that millions in the communist state need urgent help.

The ship reached the western port of Nampo on Monday, the official Korean Central News Agency said, without specifying how much or what type of food it was carrying.

The North's traditional foe the United States has promised to deliver 500,000 tonnes of food this year, 400,000 tons of the total through the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) and the rest through private US agencies.

A first shipment of 37,000 tonnes of wheat arrived in June.

The WFP has said the entire 500,000 tonnes of food aid would enable it to feed more than five million North Koreans compared to the current 1.2 million.

Last week the WFP said hunger in North Korea is at its worst since the 1990s famine, with five to six million people in need of immediate assistance.

Serious floods last summer hit harvests and the North is also faced with rising international grain prices.