By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Red Cross on Thursday proposed providing aid to North Korea to help the communist neighbor recover from recent flood damages, an official said.

   The proposal was made in a message delivered to a inter-Korean office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, a Unification Ministry official in Seoul said, declining to be identified.

   The ministry said earlier in the day that it was considering allowing emergency relief assistance to North Korea, but did not elaborate. The North, which remains technically at war with the South, had to evacuate a large number of people when heavy rains raised the level of rivers on its border with China and flooded its towns earlier this month.

   "It's not just the people in the Sinuiju border area that we're considering providing aid to," a Red Cross official said by phone, declining to be named. "We will follow the examples of 2006 and 2007 when we provided help, but the scale of aid this year will be determined upon exact assessments."

   "The emergency aid will mainly consist of noodles, water, milk and the likes," the ministry official said, ruling rice out.

   The aid, if accepted, could open room for improvement in the inter-Korean relations, which have soured since South Korea blamed North Korea in May for the sinking of its warship. Pyongyang denies involvement in the sinking that killed 46 sailors.

   samkim@yna.co.kr
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