The chief of the World Food Programme, who visited Pyongyang last week to discuss food security, will visit Seoul this week, the unification ministry said Monday,
WFP Executive Director David Beasley will meet Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon on Tuesday.
"They are expected to discuss issues of mutual concern," ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told reporters in response to a question as to whether a resumption of humanitarian assistance to the North will be discussed.
In this Nov. 6, 2017 file photo, UN World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley poses for a photo beside his agency`s logo at the agency`s headquarters in New York. (AP)
In September, the Seoul government decided to provide $8 million in humanitarian aid to the North through global agencies such as the WFP. But the money has not yet been given, as the North continued its provocations up until late last year.
With the mood of peace growing this year, expectations are rising that humanitarian assistance for the North could resume soon.
Following the four-day trip, Beasley told foreign media that North Korean people appear not to be starving as much as in the past but malnutrition problems are still persistent.
Beasley visited the North for the first time since taking office in April last year. The North's Korean Central News Agency earlier reported that he met with Kim Young-nam, the North's nominal head of state, during his stay in the communist state. (Yonhap)
