The World On arirang

On May 8, South Korea's Unification Ministry officially announced the government's plan to provide food aid to North Korea, and according to a joint report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme released on March 3, North Korea is indeed facing a food crisis, the worst the country has seen in 10 years. However, the Moon government's aid plan has failed to garner strong support from the South Korean public, in the aftermath of a string of North Korean missile tests conducted on May 4 and May 9. Some critics also suspect that North Korea may be exaggerating its food situation in order to skirt economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations, while a former U.S. State Department official also expressed concerns over the possibility of North Korea diverting aid away from the people who need them. The Moon government remains undeterred however, and may be hoping that its aid plan could be used as leverage to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table. In this week's edition of 'Foreign Correspondents', we sit down with our panel of journalists to talk more about South Korea's plan to provide food aid to North Korea.