Aid handed over to the Red Cross of South Korea
After two years of pacifying south Korea has offered North Korea humanitarian aid. But Seoul has said that the offer will not change regarding the nuclear disarmament. South Korea’s move came as the North Korea reached out to US by sending a Senior official for nuke talks. They have taken steps towards ending the Pyongyang’s atomic weapons program.
3.5m dollar aid which includes corn and powdered milk ‘solely prepared by the Red Cross’ will be given to North Korea said unification ministry official of south Korea.
Chun Hae-sung said that the offer was purely based on Humanitarian grounds and were no plans of sending large scale of food aids to people. He said “We will send 10,000 tonnes of corn and 20 tonnes of powdered milk for those such as children and pregnant women as a show of humanitarian support and brotherly love, it’s difficult to say 10,000 tonnes are enough considering the North’s food shortages, but North Korea did not specify the size or items when it asked for humanitarian assistance”.
UN reports showed that nearly 9 million people were hungry in North Korea. South Korea had previously sent up to 300,000 tonnes of fertilizer and 500,000 tonnes of rice a year. But the aid was halted as Lee Myung-bak took power in 2008.
The last aid cost was around $152 million only for the shipment of rice in 2007. It was however a part of $1 Billion package from Seoul to keep its relations with North Korea at best. The South Korean president however ended the years of unconditional aid to North Korea and set up a new policy that asks for nuclear disarmament, which triggered a boycott.
Earlier this month the North asked aid on humanitarian bases in return for cooperation which could reunite families separated since 1950-1953 war. North Korea has been suffering catastrophic food shortage as its economy suffers from the UN sanctions. Its nuclear test in May also lost the aid from the south which resulted in failure in agricultural policy and were not able to cope up with recurring floods.
A North Korea expert, Kim Seung-hwan at Myungji University told the Reuters news agency that “We can say the aid is related to the co-operation North Korea has been showing these days, including the family reunions, but at the same time, we cannot attach it to speculation of North-South summit talks”.
South Korean media have reported that Lee’s government has held secret meetings with the North on a summit, on which Lee reportedly said that the door is always open for a summit as long as it is tied to moves by Pyongyang to reduce the security threat it poses.