The Foreign Ministry said Friday it will send four officials to North Korea on Tuesday to check whether 125,000 tons of food aid from Japan has been properly distributed.
The ministry officials, working with the World Food Program, are expected to visit nurseries and orphanages to ensure that they received food.
The monitoring team, led by Sadao Matsui, an official of the ministry's northeast Asia division, will be in North Korea through Saturday.
The government will send another team by year's end to check on the distribution of food and medical aid in a joint monitoring program with other international organizations.