The United States announced Thursday $900,000 in aid to flood-hit North Korea, saying humanitarian assistance could be provided to the reclusive communist state despite political and security concerns.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said US diplomats were in contact with their counterparts at the North Korean mission at the United Nations in New York to work out the country's exact needs.

"It includes things like plastic sheeting, tents," but would not include food, she noted.

The US Agency for International Development "will contribute up to $900,000 in emergency relief supplies" to Kangwon and North and South Hwanghae provinces through US non-governmental organizations, the State Department said.

"This emergency relief demonstrates our continuing concern for the well-being of the North Korean people," it said in a statement.

The United States has for months been withholding a decision on sending food aid to North Korea until Pyongyang tackles US concerns over whether it will be distributed to the needy.

Impoverished North Korea has requested overseas food and in May invited a US envoy to assess its needs. Relief groups have said that North Korea faces imminent shortages, although many US lawmakers have been skeptical.

Nuland said the risk of aid being diverted to the wrong people was less of a concern when providing assistance to flood victims.

"They are in need of certain kinds of non-perishable humanitarian supplies that aren't particularly useful to anybody else but flood victims," she said.

"So it is, one could argue, a less complex problem to solve for in terms of monitoring and delivery."

Nor was flood aid linked to broader political developments.

"It has been the United States' longstanding position that the provision of humanitarian assistance is separate from political and security concerns," the State Department statement said.

The United States ended nuclear arms talks with North Korea on July 29 with a message that the "path is open" to better relations if the reclusive North shows a firm commitment to disarmament efforts.

State media said August 5 that floods in North Korea triggered by torrential rain late last month killed 30 people and destroyed more than 6,750 houses.

More than 15,800 people were left homeless by the floods, which also inundated more than 48,000 hectares (120,000 acres) of farmland, "seriously affecting this year's grain output," the Korean Central News Agency said.

The state news agency said 350 factories and public buildings also collapsed in the heavy rain and floods.

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