South gives first government-level assistance since deadly attacks last year


South Korea plans to resume medical aid to North Korea by taking part in a U.N. aid program, a Seoul official said Tuesday, in the newest sign of easing tensions between the two rival countries.

It will be the first government-level assistance to North Korea since its deadly shelling on a border island in November last year.

The Seoul government has approved of executing $6.94 million to the World Health Organization, which is the remainder of the $13.13 million it had planned to donate to the U.N. health body in 2009, an official at the Unification Ministry here said.

The WHO cannot use donated funds if a donor country withholds its execution.

South Korea had cut off dialogue and suspended all aid on the government basis since Pyongyang conducted two naval attacks in March and November last year. The two attacks killed 50 South Koreans, sending inter-Korean ties to the lowest level in a decade.

Although North Korea has yet to apologize for the attacks, South Korea has been slowly softening its stance in response to Pyongyang’s reconciliatory gesture.

While meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York earlier this month, Seoul’s Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik had said he would “positively consider” resuming aid via the U.N.

The WHO set up a five-year plan from 2006 to provide medical devices, facilities and medicine to North Korea.

South Korea sent a letter to the U.N. body earlier in the day to authorize the use of the remaining $6.94 million for aid to the North, the ministry official said on the condition of customary anonymity.

The decision was “made upon the policy to maintain humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable sector of children and infants” regardless of strained ties, the official said.

The Seoul government also plans to discuss aid with other U.N. organizations, he added.

North Korea, which has relied mostly on outside assistance to feed its starving population of 24 million, has been escalating calls for outside assistance this year, citing a poor harvest and summer flooding.

Aside from food shortages, lack of medical supplies is seen as another factor threatening the lives of ordinary North Koreans.

By Shin Hae-in (hayney@heraldcorp.com)