A couple of recent articles:
U.S. Wants Seoul to Stop Fertilizer Aid to North:
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has asked South Korea
to suspend fertilizer aid to Pyongyang , the New York Times (NYT)
reported Saturday. ...
Cheney said if South Korea wanted to help North Korea choose
between nuclear weapons and deeper isolation, it had to act in
concert with other nations trying to disarm the North and refuse
Pyongyang's request for several hundred thousand tons of
fertilizer. ...
However, the NYT reported some officials as saying the U.S. was
considering fresh economic pressure on North Korea. One
high-ranking White House official said the U.S. government could
seek new ways to stop the flow of money into North
Korea.
WFP Suspends Food Aid in N.K. Regions Where Access Is Banned:
The World Food Program (WFP) said Saturday it was
suspending aid distribution to an area in North Korea where the
Pyongyang government denies the aid organization's monitors
access.
In a report, WFP said North Korea notified the WFP office in
Pyongyang in early February that WFP monitors were to no longer
enjoy access to Kowon County, North Hamgyeong
Province.
Japanese Finance Ministry figures from 2003 show
Remittances to North Korea way down, by 34.5% compared with
2002, the latest years for which figures are available.
Lastly, according to
U.S. Position on North Korea Hardening, 'a leaked dossier from
the [South Korea's] National Security Council confirms that the
chief of the Chinese Foreign Ministry?s North America bureau warned
North Korea in January that unless there was progress in the
six-party talks within the next two or three months, the U.S. might
push for a military solution.'