TOKYO, Aug. 5 Kyodo - Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Thursday the Japanese government has decided to give North Korea 125,000 tons of food aid as well as $7 million worth of medical aid.

The food aid which mainly consists of wheat and foreign rice will be delivered to North Korea through the World Food Program, Kawaguchi told reporters after she reported the decision to the Cabinet the same day.

Kawaguchi said the aid will be delivered from a ''humanitarian'' standpoint, denying it was timed to win North Korean cooperation in resolving the issue of the North's abductions of Japanese just ahead of bilateral talks planned next week in Beijing.

Japan and North Korea plan to hold a working-level meeting next week in which Tokyo believes Pyongyang may disclose new information about the fate of the abducted Japanese.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi promised 250,000 tons of food aid and $10 million worth of medical aid to North Korea when he met its leader Kim Jong Il in May in Pyongyang.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa told a news conference Thursday he has requested Kawaguchi to see to it that food aid be delivered to those in need in the country rather than being given only to a limited few, noting that there has been opposition in Japan about such aid to the North.

The government is considering dispatching Japanese nationals to the WFP or relevant organizations to check the food provided by Japan would be properly distributed to the needy, Kawaguchi said.

The breakdown of the food aid, worth $40 million, is 50,000 tons of wheat, 48,000 tons of rice, 18,500 tons of maize, 5,000 tons of soybeans, 2,000 tons of sugar and 1,500 tons of cooking oil, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The food aid is intended mainly for orphans, kindergarten children, pregnant women and the elderly, the ministry said.

Kawaguchi did not elaborate on when Japan will deliver the remaining 125,000 tons of food aid and $3 million worth of medical aid.

Of the $7 million of medical aid, $5 million will go to UNICEF so that the organization can provide fundamental medicine and medical apparatus for North Korea.

The remaining $2 million will go to the World Health Organization, which plans to provide medical equipment for 30 hospitals in North Korea, the ministry said.

==Kyodo