Washington  - The United States plans to deliver another 21,000 tons of food to North Korea in the near future, the US State Department said Tuesday.

The food shipments are continuing despite the impasse in talks over dismantling North Korea's nuclear programme.

"Our humanitarian programme will continue," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "We want to try to make this work."

McCormack said a fact-finding mission had just returned from the region. All told, the US is committed to delivering 500,000 tons of food under the plan. So far, about
143,000 tons have been delivered, he said.

The food is distributed through the World Food Programme (WFP) as well as some US nongovernmental organizations.

One of the issues that needs to be resolved is finding Korean- speaking individuals who can work with the WFP portion of the distribution, McCormack said.

"We want to make sure, as a government, that the American tax dollars that provide this humanitarian aid ultimately are being put to good use, and that means that the people on the ground who need that food aid are going to get it," he said. "Part of that is making sure that we have a distribution system in which we have confidence."

In contrast, the South Korean government said it would not change its policy that unless North Korea gives up its antagonistic attitudes against the South, it won't resume the food aid.

After the 2000 inter-Korean summit, South Korea provided North Korea with aid that usually consisted of 400,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizers per year.

This aid was halted after the new government of president Lee Myung-Bak took office in February.

Some NGOs urge the Seoul government to resume the food aid for humanitarian reasons, while others say Seoul must wait until Pyongyang changes its attitudes.

"Only when North Korea realizes it has no other option but reform, North Korea would change. In reality, food aid is hard to completely separate from political interest," said Yoo Ho-Yul, a professor of Korea University in Seoul.

The South Korean government said food conditions in North Korea improved after a better grain harvest in 2008, but NGOs say it is not enough to feed its 23-million-strong population.

Earlier this month, the US cut off heavy fuel oil shipments to North Korea because Pyongyang refused to sign onto a verification process over dismantling its nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea in 2007 agreed to give up its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for economic and energy aid from the US, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, and for improved diplomatic ties with Washington.

But Pyongyang has refused to allow nuclear inspectors to take soil and waste samples from its nuclear facility in Yongbyon, a process that can determine how much plutonium for nuclear weapons was produced. (dpa)