Aid to North Korea

Seoul to Continue Humanitarian Assistance With Strings

A South Korea official hinted at continuing to offer humanitarian aid to North Korea, but with certain conditions. He said the Seoul government is likely to resume shipments of rice, fertilizer and other items to the impoverished communist country as long as the North requests them through inter-Korean dialog channels. The official disclosed the government's position after meeting with U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley in Washington Monday.

The gesture came at a time when inter-Korean talks came to a halt after President Lee Myung-bak took office on Feb. 25. The move is apparently designed to restart the talks to redefine inter-Korean relations under his pragmatic North Korea policy. Pyongyang will have to hold talks with Seoul to ask for humanitarian aid.

It is desirable that the South keep supplying humanitarian aid to the North in a move to help North Koreans ease the pain of an acute food shortage. There is no latest official report about deteriorating food problems in the famine-stricken North, but anyone can easily imagine that the situation might have aggravated amid the skyrocketing gain in food prices in international markets.

There is no doubt that the North now wants to receive badly needed food supplies from South Korea, the United States, the United Nations and international aid groups. The South must not ignore the plight of North Koreans who are living in hunger. A growing number of people are crossing the border into China to find food and work. However, many North Korean defectors have fallen victim to human trafficking and exploitation in China. More and more have fled to Southeast Asian countries, particularly Thailand.

Against this backdrop, South Korea has to accept a rising number of North Korean defectors from those countries. The Lee administration is required to take a more proactive attitude toward humanitarian assistance to the North and the accommodation of defectors. President Lee's North Korea policy is taking shape based on the principle of reciprocity, a major shift from his predecessor's unconditional provision of aid to the world's last Stalinist country.

He has reiterated that he will demand more reciprocity when providing aid to the North. Washington has welcomed his position. In the past, U.S. officials were concerned about unconditional assistance by the Roh Moo-hyun government undermining efforts to prod the North to abandon its nuclear weapons programs. President Lee's assistance program for North Korea is based on a ``four plus alpha'' formula.

It means that economic assistance will depend on four conditions: progress in the North's denuclearization, the feasibility of inter-Korean economic cooperation projects, the availability of financial means, and public support. Most important is humanitarian aid to the North ― ``alpha.'' The Lee administration has yet to map out its position. However, it appears that Pyongyang will have to make more efforts for reconciliation and peace on the peninsula in a bid to get more humanitarian aid from Seoul.