Not only did Bill Richardson’s North Korea trip have some good results in terms of the country’s nuclear program, it came up big for international relief agencies, too. The L.A. Times has more, and the end of the New York Times article has specifics on how the World Food Program was about to pack up and leave a lot of hungry people behind:
Last month, North Korea had given a Dec. 31 deadline for foreigners working for private aid groups to leave and had ordered the World Food Program to change its aid from “humanitarian” to “development.”
“The North Koreans basically reversed their position on the aid issue, basically the date of expulsion is now not operational,” said Mr. Richardson. “I said, ‘You’ve got school lunches for kids.’ They said, ‘O.K., that’s development.’ ”
The World Food Program will be allowed to keep 30 foreign aid workers, slightly fewer than their current allotment.
On Tuesday, Richard Ragan, the American who directs aid efforts for this United Nations agency, said the personnel cuts were forcing him to prepare to close all of the program’s 19 food-enrichment factories in North Korea. The program helps to feed about one-third of North Korea’s 22 million people.
Megadittoes (look, an outdated Limbaugh joke) to Ian’s observation yesterday about the advantage of having a Democrat conduct weapons negotiations; it’s not that I think Republicans hate food for schoolchildren, but I’m more confident that a guy like Richardson has “check on humanitarian workers” as part of his agenda. Good work, Governor.