Food aid to North Korea should not be used as a political tool. This is according to the New York Times in its editorial titled "Not A Political Tool."
Here, the leading daily cites the World Food Program's recent assessment of the North's dire food shortages which claims that six million people are at serious risk of malnutrition or starvation.
The daily says it disapproves Washington's recent decision to refuse any additional aid to the impoverised state.
As food shortages are caused by the Kim Jong-il regime's failed economic policies, it urged Washington to lend a helping hand to alleviate the suffering of the ordinary North Korean citizens while holding talks with the regime to adopt economic reforms.
The paper added that a strict monitoring system would significantly slash the North's diversion of food aid to the military and the elite.
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