WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States will continue to provide food aid to North Korea despite tensions over the communist nation’s sales of missile technology to Iran, Syria and other countries.

State Department spokeswoman Susan Pittman said May 13 that the United States would donate 100,000 tons of commodities to the U.N. World Food Program for distribution in North Korea. Pittman said the aid is targeted at children and pregnant and lactating women.

The aid is "consistent with our long-standing policy of giving assistance to meet humanitarian needs around the world," Pittman said.

Impoverished North Korea depends on outside aid to feed its 22 million people, and views missile exports as a vital source of revenue.

In April, the United Nations announced that North Korea has just two-thirds of the food it needs to get through the year. David Morton, the World Food Program’s representative in North Korea, said the country’s autumn harvest was its worst in four years of famine.

After his inauguration in January, President George W. Bush suspended talks with North Korea on curbing its missile program, pending a review of U.S. policy. Two weeks ago the State Department included North Korea on its list of countries sponsoring terrorism, which prevents it from receiving U.S. economic assistance.