Chinese Grain, coal aid for North Korea Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - "Henry C.K. Liu" Saturday June 5 1999 South China Morning Post - Hong Kong Grain, coal aid for North Korea REUTERS China will give famine-stricken North Korea 150,000 tonnes of grain and 400,000 tonnes of coking coal this year, Premier Zhu Rongji told Pyongyang's No 2 leader yesterday. Xinhua said Mr Zhu offered the aid to Kim Yong-nam, head of North Korea's Parliament and the highest-ranking Pyongyang official to visit China since 1991. Mr Kim also met President Jiang Zemin. "Over the past years, China has provided assistance, within its capacity, for the North Korean people in their socialist construction," Mr Zhu was quoted as saying. North Korea has been struggling since 1995 with a devastating famine caused by floods and drought, magnified by mismanagement in the state-run collective farm system. Hundreds of thousands of people are thought to have died. Mr Kim is expected to be shown the achievements of capitalist-style economic reforms in Shanghai. Although China is likely to showcase its transformation from a backward state-planned economy to a global trading powerhouse, mainland officials have said Beijing will not press its development model on Mr Kim's delegation. Xinhua quoted Mr Kim as praising China's economic reforms and congratulating Beijing for avoiding the worst of the Asian financial crisis and maintaining growth. Xinhua quoted Mr Zhu as saying ties were "well-grounded" between China and North Korea, which fought together against US-led United Nations forces in the 1950-53 Korean War. The two countries still hold many views in common, including wariness about US policies in Asia, suspicion of strengthened US-Japan military ties, and rejection of Western criticism of their human rights records. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-06.06.99-22:11:23-7936