Tokyo ? A U.S. ship bearing 37,000 tons of wheat has arrived in North Korea, officials said Monday, the first installment in what is scheduled to be a major expansion of international food aid in the closed totalitarian country.

The U.N. World Food Program said it had signed an anticipated agreement with North Korea that would increase the international feeding operation there to more than 5 million people, up from the 1.2 million people now being fed. The United States is to provide the bulk of the food this year. The agreement also promises to give U.N. monitors more access than ever to find out who is eating the free food.

On Thursday, Kim Jong Il’s government handed over a long-delayed declaration that disclosed some details about its plutonium production. On Friday, it blew up a cooling tower at a disabled nuclear plant, allowing Western television crews to film the event.

The declaration prompted President Bush to ease some trade sanctions and begin a process to take North Korea off a list of countries that are officially designated as sponsors of terrorism.