By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The government has been reviewing whether to subsidize non-government organizations through the inter-Korean cooperation fund in order to provide aid to North Korea, according to the Ministry of Unification, Monday.
``The government is mainly checking plans to offer health and medical care,'' ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told reporters. ``But details have yet to be determined.''
Chun reiterated that Seoul is sticking to its existing stance that it will provide North Korea with humanitarian assistance regardless of the political climate.
According to government sources, the subsidy would total less than 1 billion won (about $853,000).
The plan, however, is not related to North Korea's request for humanitarian aid made during the inter-Korean Red Cross talks last Friday, the sources said.
Seoul has also been reviewing whether to provide the reclusive state with government-level support such as food and fertilizer aid, according to ministry officials.
The inter-Korean cooperation fund has served as a lifeline for cross-border business projects, including the Gaeseong Industrial Complex and the Mt. Geumgang tourism program, which has been suspended.
It is also a main source of South Korea's economic aid to the impoverished North.
The cash pot was introduced in 1990 in order to boost personal exchanges, economic cooperation and trust-building between the two Koreas.
In August, the ministry approved a plan to subsidize 10 civic groups with approximately 3.6 billion won ($3 million) from the fund for relief activities involving North Korean babies, pregnant women and other social minorities.
The government originally planned to distribute the money starting from April but North Korea's provocations postponed the plan.
The secretive state had detained a South Korean worker at the Gaeseong complex for his derogatory comments on its regime late March and conducted a second nuclear test in May.
Since President Lee Myung-bak took office in February last year, government-level aid to the isolated state has been stopped.
ksy@koreatimes.co.kr
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