Seoul, South Korea – South Korea said Sunday it will provide $230 million in disaster relief to flood-ravaged North Korea, despite Seoul’s earlier decision to halt regular aid to Pyong yang after missile tests by the impoverished communist nation.
The aid – including 100,000 tons of rice, 80,000 blankets and emergency medical supplies – will be sent to the North starting late this month, said Vice Unification Minister Shin Eon-sang.
The goods are in addition to $20 million in donations that the Seoul government and South Korean civic groups have jointly pledged to the North.
State media in the North have said last month’s heavy flooding killed hundreds, but a South Korean aid group claims the casualty toll is nearly 58,000 dead and missing. The North initially rejected South Korean aid from the Red Cross but earlier this month asked for help.
South Korea suspended regular aid to the North in July after the country test-launched a series of missiles over international objections.
Seoul decided to offer emergency aid after the floods but said its suspension of regular aid was still in place.
“It is a separate case from annual aid to the North,” Shin said in a news briefing, calling the goods “emergency humanitarian aid.”
The North’s recent missile tests prompted the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution condemning the North and barring U.N. member states from missile-related dealings with the Kim Jong-Il regime.
South Korea is one of the key aid donors to North Korea, which has relied on outside handouts since the mid-1990s, when natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its economy and led to a famine estimated to have killed 2 million people.
