South Korea gives North 100,000 tonnes rice

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea will send 100,000 tonnes of
rice through its Red Cross to flood-ravaged North Korea in a
one-time aid package that also includes building materials and
equipment, the government said on Sunday.

Seoul, a major supplier of aid to the impoverished North,
had cut off its ongoing food aid after Pyongyang defied
international warnings and test-fired seven missiles on July 5.

Major storms hit the North last month, causing flooding
that killed at least 151, according to the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. A pro-North
paper issued in Japan put the death toll at 549 with 295
missing.

The North’s Red Cross put the number of dead and missing at
150 or so, with extensive loss of farm land, houses, roads and
bridges, the South Korean government said in a report on
Sunday.

Officials could not explain the large discrepancies from
the earlier estimates, except to say that information was
tightly controlled in the North.

“We find it meaningful that this aid is backed by public
opinion and bipartisan support that called for humanitarian
assistance for the North based on national love,” Vice
Unification Minister Shin Eon-sang told reporters.

Shipments will begin later in August, he said.

The aid, which will cost the South government 221 billion
won ($230.6 million), comes after U.S. news reports said last
week the North may be preparing to conduct a nuclear weapons
test.

Officials in Washington and Seoul said there was no
conclusive evidence for such a test.

The aid package is the result of a meeting of Red Cross
officials from the two Koreas on Saturday, where the North
thanked the South for the help, an official has said.

Pyongyang had earlier rebuffed aid offers from Seoul and
from the World Food Program (WFP). A WFP official has said the
North was ready to reverse position and accept its offer to
wheat, flour and vegetable oil.

Earlier this month the South Korean government offered a
separate package of household goods and medicine worth 10
billion won ($10.4 million).

Even in a good year, North Korea falls about 1 million
tonnes short of the food it needs to feed its people. South
Korea provided 500,000 tonnes of rice last year but has
rebuffed a request for the same amount earlier this year.

The South gave the North 350,000 tonnes of fertilizer this
year prior to the multiple missile launches.