The U.S. government says its latest food aid shipment to North Korea will arrive within the week.

The State Department said Tuesday that a ship carrying 21-thousand metric tons of food will arrive in North Korea by the end of this week, explaining that the shipment was delayed due to rough seas.

The department also said that the aid will be distributed to the North Koreans by nongovernmental organizations, adding that the U.S. has no plans of halting food aid to the North.

However, the department said that the issuance of visas for Korean-speaking monitors for the World Food Program (WFP) has yet to be resolved. It said that there should be no restrictions when it comes to visas for WFP and NGO officials.

The U.S. shipped 143-thousand metric tons of food to North Korea last year as part of its pledge made last May to provide a total of 500-thousand tons of humanitarian food aid to the reclusive communist state.