A shipment of emergency relief aid from a Korean civic group is heading to flood-hit North Korea, officials said Thursday, in the first such delivery this year that may help calm mounting cross-border tensions.
JTS Korea, a Seoul-based Buddhist relief agency, said a freighter carrying 500 tons of flour left the port of Incheon, west of Seoul, and will soon arrive in North Korea via the Chinese port city of Dandong on the border with the North.
The civilian aid for North Koreans was sent after the North was hit by severe floods in recent months, which left hundreds of people killed or missing.
"Our officials plan to visit North Korea in the near future to monitor the distribution of aid," a JTS Korea official said.
The shipment came after North Korea last week rejected an offer by the South Korean government to donate 10,000 tons of flour, instant noodles and medicine as flood aid.
Officials at Seoul's Unification Ministry in charge of North Korean affairs said Pyongyang turned down the proposal and openly displayed anger at Seoul's refusal to give what the North said it needs most -- rice and cement.
North Korea rejected a similar South Korean offer to provide flood aid last year when the North also sustained massive human losses and property damage. South Korean officials fear that by giving rice and cement, it could be used for the North's military.
After being hit by flooding and typhoons since June, North Korea has appealed for international help. Korea agreed to allow civilian groups to ship essential food to North Korea.
Inter-Korean exchanges virtually came to a halt after the conservative government of President Lee Myung-bak was installed in Seoul in 2008 with a hardline policy toward North Korea, linking any aid with progress in the North's denuclearization. Relations worsened after North Korea launched two military attacks on the South in 2010. (Yonhap)
