Seoul proposes Mt. Geumgang talks on Friday

Government lifts ban on humanitarian aid

By Park Si-soo

South Korea proposed holding a working-level dialogue with North Korea Monday to resume a suspended tourism project to the North’s Mt. Geumgang resort.

It has also lifted a ban on civic groups sending humanitarian aid in the form of flour, giving a clear signal that the government may be trying to normalize inter-Korean relations.

The moves come three days after top envoys from the two countries sat together for the first time in 31 months on the sidelines of a key regional security forum in Bali, Indonesia, and agreed to make joint efforts to resume the six-nation talks on ending the North’s nuclear program “as soon as possible.”

“We’ve sent a message to the North to propose holding a working-level dialogue at the mountain Friday on issues regarding the suspended travel to Mt. Geumgang,” said Chun Hae-sung, a spokesman for the Ministry of Unification.

“In the message, we asked the North to settle the problem through bilateral talks. We don’t rule out the possibility of discussing concrete measures to resume travel at the meeting.”

Pyongyang has yet to give its response to the proposal, the ministry said.

South Korean citizens’ trips to Mt. Geumgang, which were once a symbol of reconciliation, were halted in late 2008 when a female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier after straying into a military zone.

No negotiations to resume the visits has been held since February last year, frustrating the cash-strapped North that had hoarded U.S. dollars by selling tickets to visit the scenic mountain.

Last month, Pyongyang warned that it would dispose of Seoul-owned assets at the mountain.

The unification ministry official said the priority of the upcoming meeting was to protect ownership of the assets there.

The government said Monday it approved the flour aid to be sent to North Korea for the first time since a deadly artillery attack on a South Korean island last year.

The unification ministry spokesman told reporters that two relief groups will deliver 400 tons of flour to a nursery, a children’s hospital and a kindergarten in the poverty-stricken North starting Tuesday.

“The food will be distributed to malnourished people in the North under strict supervision by the South,” said a civic group official.

The spokesman said the ministry is considering allowing other shipments of humanitarian food supplies to the North by relief groups. But he added there was no aid plan by the government.

Earlier, a high-ranking unification ministry official said the volume of aid “may increase if monitoring of its distribution is conducted properly.”

The North has grappled with worsening food shortages as a result of the suspension of food aid from its two major donors, South Korea and the United States.

The South had provided 300,000 to 400,000 tons of rice to its impoverished neighbor annually before their relations deteriorated in 2008, according to the ministry.

The European Commission recently announced that it would give 10 million euros worth of urgent food aid, enough to feed 650,000 children, to Pyongyang, after negotiating “unprecedented access” to ensure the food goes straight to those most in need.

Sweden also unveiled a plan to send medical aid worth $2.94 million. The United States remains undecided on the resumption of aid.