By Sam Kim
SEOUL, March 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Thursday approved the first civilian humanitarian aid to North Korea since the communist neighbor bombarded a South Korean island in November, an official said.

   The approval of 336 million won (US$305,000) worth of tuberculosis medicine from the Eugene Bell Foundation is the latest in a string of signs that tension is lowering on the Korean Peninsula after the shelling killed four South Koreans.

   "There have been voices that at least civic groups should be allowed to send aid to North Korea. The government has taken these factors into account," a Unification Ministry official told reporters, adding the government is looking at other requests by relief groups to send humanitarian aid to North Korea.

   South Korea suspended even the most basic humanitarian assistance to North Korea after the North shelled Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea. The resumption of civilian aid comes days after the United Nations called for more than 430,000 tons of food aid to support the most vulnerable groups such as children and pregnant women in North Korea.

   South Korea has provided little food assistance to North Korea since a conservative government took power in Seoul in 2008 and tied cross-border exchanges to denuclearization efforts by Pyongyang.

   The stance brought the inter-Korean relations to the lowest point in years and led to the suspension of about 300,000 tons of annual rice aid Seoul provided for Pyongyang for the previous decade.

   The Unification Ministry official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said his government has no plans for now to fund the civilian assistance, adding that a total of seven groups are awaiting approval to send humanitarian aid to the North.

   "It's the first step in a long journey," the official said, referring to the impact of humanitarian aid on the relations between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.

   South Korea approved 14.7 billion won worth of humanitarian assistance by civic groups to North Korea in the period after a multinational investigation last May found Pyongyang responsible for the sinking of a South Korean warship earlier last year, according to the ministry.

   The flow of aid came to a halt after the bombardment of Yeonpyeong, which the North says was triggered by a South Korean military provocation along their western sea border. The North also denies its role in the sinking of the Cheonan warship, which claimed the lives of 46 South Korean sailors.

   In a development signaling a thaw in the relations between the Koreas, experts from the countries held a meeting earlier this week in a South Korean border town to share concerns over volcanic activities at a mountain on the border between China and the North.

   The meeting came after colonel-level defense talks failed in early February to ease tension between the two countries, despite growing international pressure on them to improve ties and set the mood for the resumption of six-party nuclear talks on the North.

   samkim@yna.co.kr
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