Saenuri party leader calls for Bolaven aid to NK

By Kim Young-jin

Saenuri Party chairman Hwang Woo-yea urged the government to consider aiding flood-stricken North Korea, Tuesday, after the impoverished state reported dozens killed by Typhoon Bolaven.

The call, analysts said, may test the appetite in both Koreas for engagement as conservative presidential frontrunner Park Geun-hye pushes a “balanced” policy on the North.

At least 48 North Koreans were killed and 50 injured by the storm last week, Pyongyang’s Korea Central News Agency reported a day earlier. Some 6,700 houses were destroyed or flooded and nearly 22,000 are now homeless, it said.

“There is a need to examine possible flood aid to the North,” Hwang said in a speech to open the National Assembly's plenary session. "The country must deal firmly with any North Korean provocation, but humanitarian assistance is needed."

Civilian groups complain that their plans to aid North Koreans have been hampered by excessive red tape. The government has yet to approve the groups’ deliveries, citing the North's failure to submit a distribution plan for the aid.

Seoul officials say they need to be sure the flour will not be diverted for military or political purposes.

Christian group World Vision has pushed back its plan to deliver 500 tons of flour to the North until later this month over the delay.

"Requiring a distribution plan in a flood relief aid case cannot help fulfill the purpose of emergency assistance,” a World Vision official said.

Unification Minister Woo Yu-ik has floated the possibility of government-level aid to the North, but Seoul has largely been mum on the possibility amid icy cross-border ties.

Rep. Park, meanwhile, says building trust is the key to better cross-border relations. To do so, she says she will seek economic projects and provide humanitarian aid regardless of political tensions.

“It’s a good chance for the ruling party to propose to aid the North given the severe damage,” Yoo Ho-yeol, a North watcher at Korea University said. “Because Park’s main principle is to build trust, Seoul can test the North’s willingness to engage as well as voter sentiment on such moves.”

Park also stresses the North must live up to inter-Korean and international agreements and that Pyongyang’s provocations will be met with severe consequences.

The push to reengage is seen as necessary to combat China’s increasing influence on its impoverished, yet resource-rich ally.

Inter-Korean exchanges have plummeted during the Lee Myung-bak administration, which implemented a reciprocity-based policy towards the belligerent North.