Seoul not considering immediate aid to N. Korea

Korea is not considering any new economic assistance for North Korea, Seoul`s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Monday, one day after the communist state demanded measures to reciprocate for arranging reunions of separated families, Yonhap reported.

"The government is not considering any massive food or fertilizer assistance to North Korea at this point in time," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Park Sun-kyoo told a daily press briefing.

Seoul periodically provided rice and fertilizers to the impoverished North until its ties with Pyongyang deteriorated following the inauguration of its conservative Lee Myung-bak government early last year.

The remarks came as a direct response to cues from Pyongyang on Sunday suggesting Seoul reciprocate the good will the North has shown by resuming the family reunions.

Won Sei-hoon, chief of Seoul`s National Intelligence Service, earlier was quoted as saying at a parliamentary session that the government may consider measures corresponding to North Korea`s latest move.

Park, the Cheong Wa Dae spokesman, elaborated Seoul could consider such measures when needed, but added the government was already providing food and medicine to the North`s most vulnerable people.