Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter urged Japan on March 13 to be more flexible in extending food to North Korea, claiming it would help bring peace to the Korean Peninsula.

While noting the importance of cooperation between Japan and the United States, Carter said that he would like to see "more generosity from both sides to the starving people of North Korea." Japan has been particularly reluctant to ship rice to North Korea, he told a press conference covering the U.S.-Japan Common Agenda Forum.

Carter said he sees bright prospects for improving the situation on the Korean Peninsula as South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, who assumed the post late last month, is seeking to improve the relationship with North Korea.

Kim has been publicly advocating friendship toward the North Korean people, although the response from Pyongyang has to date not been clear, Carter said. He added that joint efforts between Japan and the U.S. will be more helpful to improve the situation on the peninsula than each nation's individual effort.

Carter has been in Japan to attend the Common Agenda Open Forum, which ended March 13. Japan and the U.S. are tackling issues such as eradication of diseases, environmental protection and elimination of poverty under the Common Agenda.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi told Carter at a meeting that Japan will extend a $2.5 million grant for nongovernmental organizations to help eradicate Guinea worm disease, ministry officials said. The former president's Carter Center is promoting activities to eliminate the disease.