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S. Korean Red Cross aid to North Korea hits zero
SEOUL, Oct. 15 (Yonhap) -- Humanitarian aid to North Korea by South Korea's Red Cross dropped to nil this year after a rapid decline in 2008, mirroring strained political relations across the border, a lawmaker said here Thursday, citing internal data.
Rep. Kwak Jung-sook of the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party said North Korea aid provided by the National Red Cross plunged to 1.8 billion won (US$1.55 million) last year, compared to 140 billion won worth of aid in 2007 and 200 billion won in 2006.
There has been no humanitarian aid shipment so far this year to the North out of the Red Cross budget, Kwak said in a press release, citing a report from the Red Cross submitted for an ongoing parliamentary audit.
The decline apparently was in tandem with the Lee Myung-bak government's decision last year to suspend government-level aid to Pyongyang until North Korea makes meaningful step toward denuclearization. Rice and fertilizer aid remain suspended.
The Red Cross has mostly supplied medicine, dietary supplements and clothes, which are in short supply in the North.
"Assistance to the vulnerable people in the North, like children and the elderly, should be continued on humanitarian grounds," Kwak said. Red Cross officials were not immediately available for comment.
The Koreas will hold Red Cross talks on Friday in the North's border town of Kaesong to discuss arranging a new round of reunions for families separated by the Korean War (1950-1953). Reunions were held late September for the first time in nearly two years in a sign of slowly improving relations between the two governments.
On Wednesday, North Korea expressed regrets and offered condolences over the deaths of six South Koreans who were killed in a flash flood caused when the North opened a dam.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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