South Korea will announce early next week a timetable for the shipment of 400,000 tons of rice aid to North Korea, a ranking Unification Ministry official said Friday.
The ministry was expected to announce the timetable Friday, but the abrupt visit to Pyongyang of U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill Thursday played a role in delaying the announcement. South Korea is awaiting the outcome of Hill's North Korea trip on the North's implementation of its denuclearization pledge made in February.
"We will give you a detailed timetable on the rice aid early next week, including when the first shipment will be made," Vice Unification Minister Shin Un-sang said in a press briefing.
South Korea resumed shipments of fertilizer and other emergency aid to the North in late March, but withheld the loan of 400,000 tons of rice as an inducement for North Korea to start its nuclear dismantlement under the landmark February 13 agreement.