Russian food aid arrives by train in North Korea

A shipment of Russian food aid arrived this week in North Korea, the country's official news agency reported.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the aid arrived Monday via train to the northwestern city of Sinuiju. There were no details on the amount of food sent, which KCNA said was to be delivered through the World Food Program.

The food "is a token of the friendly relations between the peoples of the two countries and an encouragement to the Korean people," KCNA aid.

Russia is one of the North's allies and a member of six-nation disarmament talks that aim to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programs.

Famine in the 1990s is believed to have killed as many as 2 million North Koreans, caused by bad weather and outdated farming practices along with the loss of Pyongyang's Soviet benefactor.

[AP]