The South Korean government is considering resuming food assistance to North Korea next month, an official said Sunday, breaking from its earlier position that aid can be shipped only when Pyongyang asks for it.

The Unification Ministry and the ruling Grand National Party reached an agreement to resume food aid to the North either through direct shipments or via the World Food Program, the party official said, requesting anonymity.

"There was no dissent in the government and the ruling party that food assistance for North Korea should be resumed," the official said, referring to the meeting held Thursday between Rep. Hwang Jin-ha, GNP's policy adjustment committee chief, and Unification Ministry working-level officials.

The party official said the government will confirm the decision in early October, considering North Korea's fall harvest. Sources said Seoul has been trying to contact Pyongyang to find ways of direct shipment.

The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said North Korea will slip back into famine unless given aid worth about US$500 million in the next 15 months and has formally asked South Korea to contribute $60 million for its campaign in North Korea.

South Korea has yet to respond to the appeal. Seoul suspended direct shipments of food to the North after the conservative Lee Myung-bak government took office in February on a pledge to pursue inter-Korean relations on a reciprocal basis.

The Lee government later proposed talks with the North to send 50,000 tons of corn through the WFP, but the North has not responded to the offer amid chilled ties between the two nations.