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North Korea Agrees to Admit 10 More Food Relief Monitors

North Korea has agreed to admit 10 additional monitors to ensure that food contributions to the stricken Asian country go to children and others in dire need, U.S. officials said yesterday.

Meanwhile, the State Department announced that seven American officials will go to North Korea on Saturday to assess the nation's food needs. This could be a step toward more U.S. aid to North Korea.

Seven monitors have been overseeing distribution, which this year has included 177,000 metric tons of American grain. But if the United States decides to increase its contribution more monitors would be needed, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"We believe that we have made clear to the North Korean government the importance of having monitoring, and I believe that some of the concerns that were expressed were resolved, in terms of people getting the necessary visas," department spokesman James P. Rubin said.

The U.S. delegation will be headed by Leonard Rogers, an administrator with the Agency for International Development, who warned two weeks ago that "we will not provide assistance unless there is effective monitoring."

Rubin said, "As this team goes out there, its primary mission is to assess the problem and how deep the problem is. And we've seen some excruciatingly painful stories about little children suffering, about famine being widespread."

While there is no evidence that American corn, rice and other food aid is being diverted to North Korea's military or being stolen, international relief monitors do not have access to areas in the north and the center of the country, U.S. officials said recently.