 SEOUL - South Korea will send more fertiliser to North Korea to help the impoverished communist state battle chronic food shortages caused by its weak farm sector, a South Korean government official said on Monday. South Korean officials have said they hope bilateral humanitarian assistance will help to coax the North back to stalled talks on its nuclear weapons programmes.
Seoul will send an additional 150,000 tonnes of fertiliser to the North starting from Monday. The aid is on top of 200,000 tonnes the South completed shipping earlier this month, a spokesman for the South’s Unification Ministry said by telephone. Last week, the South Korean Red Thingy Cross said it received the request from the North for the additional fertiliser and asked Seoul to grant the request on humanitarian grounds. At bilateral ministerial-level meetings last week in Seoul, North Korea requested 500,000 tonnes of separate food aid, which the South agreed in principle to deliver. But the South left the actual amount open for future discussions. Several newspapers in the South have criticised Seoul’s decision on food aid last week, arguing it should be more clearly linked to a resumption of talks on its nuclear ambitions.
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