The Washington Post says North Korea will send a delegation to World Food Program headquarters in Rome this weekend for talks on the agency's reduced operations in the North.

Abraham de Kock, the vice director of the WFP's Pyongyang office, told the U.S. daily over the phone that the North has not clarified whether the agency's staff can stay remain there.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who visited the North last week, said Pyongyang will allow 60 of the WFP's 100 workers to stay in the country.

The U.N. affiliate has operated factories in the North since 1999, but will end its emergency aid by year's end at the request of the North.