NKorea seeks China food aid amid flare-up with Seoul: report

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

SEOUL (AFP) — North Korea has asked China to provide massive food aid for its hungry people amid a flare-up in tensions with former major donor South Korea, a news report said Friday.

"This means the North won't look to the South for food aid, at least for a while," Seoul's Hankyoreh newspaper quoted a diplomatic source as saying. "China has not yet responded to this request."

A leading analyst also said the North's leader was likely to turn to his traditional ally.

"Following the April 18-19 US-South Korea summit, Kim Jong-Il is likely to visit China to strengthen their traditional alliance as 'brotherly neighbours' and request massive food aid," Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies told AFP.

In recent years, the...