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S. Korea to unveil extent of corn aid to North this week
SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will notify the North this week that it will provide small-scale corn aid to the impoverished country, responding to Pyongyang's rare request for humanitarian assistance from Seoul, officials here said Sunday.The planned aid to the North, when announced, will be the first of its kind since South Korea's Lee Myung-bak government came to power early last year, conditioning state-level assistance on Pyongyang's denuclearization. The government "will set in concrete the type and extent of the aid and present that to the North within this week," a high-ranking official involved in inter-Korean affairs said, requesting anonymity as an official announcement has yet to be made. Other officials said the aid will consist of 10,000 tons to 30,000 tons of corn. Again, that will be enough to feed the leadership while letting the population starve. Seoul has ruled out any large-scale aid, in line with its support for U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea for its nuclear test in May. The punitive sanctions aim to curb financial benefits that flow into the country and could fund its atomic and missile programs. On Oct. 16, North Korea requested humanitarian aid from the South during Red Cross talks over cross-border family reunions. It was the North's first official request for assistance from the conservative Lee government. Months after stoking tension with its nuclear test, North Korea shifted toward softer diplomacy with South Korea and the United States, inviting dignitaries to Pyongyang and lifting restrictions on inter-Korean business ventures in August. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il also sent high-level envoys to Seoul to mourn the death of late former President Kim Dae-jung. In a meeting with President Lee, the envoys also conveyed the North's desire for an inter-Korean summit. Over the past decade, President Lee's liberal predecessors annually provided about 400,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer to the North, seeking inter-Korean reconciliation through economic and social exchanges. Posted by: Steve White 2009-10-26 |
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