NKorea says food aid talks with US went well

SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea said Thursday that talks with a visiting US government delegation on possible emergency food aid had gone well "in a sincere atmosphere".

The official Korean Central News Agency said the four-day discussions ended Thursday.

"They went well in a sincere atmosphere," it said without elaborating.

A leading US research institute warned last week that the North again runs the risk of outright famine, ten years after up to one million of its people died of starvation.

The Peterson Institute said food prices in the hardline communist state have almost tripled in the last year.

The UN World Food Programme has also said time is running out to avert a humanitarian tragedy due to acute and worsening food shortages following severe floods last summer.

South Korea's foreign ministry said Tuesday the US delegation was discussing conditions and ways of providing aid.

State Department press officer Nancy Beck earlier this week described the discussions as "inconclusive".

She said the provision of food aid depends on the level of need, supply "and our view of other needs that might exist, and our ability to ensure aid is reliably reaching the people in need".

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