SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Yonhap) -- Aid groups in South Korea plan to send hundreds of tons of flour in emergency food aid to North Korea later this week to help the flood-hit impoverished neighbor, officials said Tuesday.

   The Korea Sharing Movement and the Join Together Society (JTS) plan to ship 400 tons of flour to the North Korean border city of Kaesong via an overland route on Thursday, an official said. The Gyeonggi provincial government helped fund the assistance.

   Separately, the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, a coalition of pro-unification civic and social groups, also plans to send 130 tons of flour to the North on Thursday.

   On Monday, Seoul's Red Cross announced that it would provide rice and cement aid to help North Korea recover from recent floods. The aid, worth 10 billion won (US$8.6 million), includes 5,000 tons of rice and 10,000 tons of cement.

   Heavy rains battered North Korea's border area with China last month, deluging crop fields, houses and public buildings in the border town of Sinuiju, according to television footage released by Pyongyang.

   The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the flood killed 14 people and prompted tens of thousands of others to evacuate.

   North Korea is vulnerable to natural disasters because of its lack of investment in disaster control and severe deforestation.

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