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"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 impoverished hardline communist state has
received around 400,000 tons of rice and about 300,000 tons of
fertiliser a year from the prosperous South.
But the North is furious about the decision by Seoul's new
conservative government to link economic assistance to progress in
nuclear disarmament.
The North, which relies on international help to feed many of its
people, accepted aid and investment worth billions of dollars from
South Korea through a decade-long "sunshine" engagement policy under
liberal presidents.
Its party newspaper Rodong Sinmun, in an article blasting President
Lee Myung-Bak as a traitor and US sycophant, said this week it no
longer needs Seoul's help.
"The DPRK (North Korea) will be able to live as well as it wishes
without any help from the South, as it did in the past," it said.
Seoul officials say the North has made no request for rice or
fertiliser this year, despite its increasingly severe food shortage.
Any such request would be considered depending on the overall
situation, said Kim Jung-Soo, director general of the Unification
Ministry's humanitarian cooperation bureau.
"As to fertiliser and rice aid, we will take into account the
overall situation and changes in North Korea's attitude in case the
North asks for it," Kim told AFP.
On Thursday, the North announced it was suspending all dialogue
with South Korea and closing the border to Seoul officials, its
toughest action in a week of growing cross-border tensions.
The North said it acted after Seoul refused to apologise for
remarks by its military chief, which Pyongyang interpreted as
authorising a pre-emptive military strike.
Analysts say the North may be testing Lee's resolve and trying to
sway opinion against his conservative party in next week's
parliamentary election.
They say Pyongyang may also stage more missile tests, or naval
manoeuvres near the disputed Yellow Sea border – the scene of bloody
clashes in 1999 and 2002.
Late Thursday, the North's navy command said three South Korean
warships had entered its waters in a "serious military provocation" – a
charge denied by Seoul.
Aid agencies say the North faces an especially severe food shortage
this year after floods last summer ruined harvests and international
grain prices rose.
Even elite citizens in the capital Pyongyang have had state rations
cut off for the next six months, South Korea's Good Friends aid group
said on Thursday.
It said the situation was worse elsewhere in the country.
The UN's World Food Programme had no information on whether rations
had been suspended in the capital but said the overall situation was
bad.
"We are very concerned about food security overall in North Korea
this year because of floods last year," said regional spokesman Paul
Risley.
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