The head of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs has expressed grave concerns about North Korea’s intentions behind requests it has made for food aid.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen told a committee hearing on North Korean affairs Thursday that Pyongyang has requested further U.S. food aid amid reports that indicate renewed food shortages in the communist state.

She said fast approaching is next year’s 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's father, and that there is the danger that aid provided would be diverted for this spectacle.

Ros-Lehtinen said that there is the question of the American food aid that remained in North Korean warehouses when Pyongyang expelled American humanitarian NGOs in the spring of 2009. She said that Pyongyang distributed this food without monitoring.

She also noted that in December 2008, U.S. shipments of food aid to North Korea via the World Food Program were suspended due to growing concerns about diversion to the North Korean military and regime elites and due to the U.N. food agency's lack of effective monitoring and safeguards.