S. Korea sends first flour aid to N. Korea since Kim Jong-il’s death

A South Korean charity group on Friday delivered the first flour aid to North Korea since the death of the North’s former leader Kim Jong-il.

The Seoul-based Korea Peace Foundation delivered 180 tons of flour, with eight foundation representatives traveling to the North’s border city of Gaeseong.

Two of the eight representatives will stay until Saturday to ensure the aid package reaches its targeted group, foundation officials said. Flour is to be delivered to an elementary school, a daycare center and a kindergarten in North Hwanghae Province near the Gaeseong Industrial complex, officials added.

“We’ve resumed humanitarian assistance to North Korea that had been suspended since the death of Kim Jong-il,” an official with the foundation said. Kim died of a heart attack on Dec. 17, and Pyongyang announced his passing two days later.

“We’re expecting this flour aid to provide some breakthrough for inter-Korean dialogue,” the official added.

The South government approved the foundation members’ trip last week. All trips across the border are subject to government permission. The Koreas remain technically at war with each other since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

While the foundation was carrying flour into the North, the government said Seoul’s aid to Pyongyang fell by more than 50 percent last year.

According to the Unification Ministry, the South’s humanitarian aid to the North amounted to 19.6 billion won ($17.5 million) in 2011, down 51.5 percent from 40.4 billion won in 2010.

Of the 19.6 billion won, private aid accounted for 13.1 billion won, an annual drop of 68.1 percent, and the government aid totaled 6.5 billion won, down 34.5 percent from a year earlier.

The ministry said the government sent its aids through United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and private organizations purchased flour, medicines and soy milk, among others.

The total inter-Korean trade fell by more than 10 percent to 1.71 billion won in 2011, the ministry added. (Yonhap News)