Seoul may send 300,000 tonnes of rice to NK by end of June
Children at a kindergarten opened in 1954. In 1979, the kindergarten was turned into a pre-school institution for children gifted in music. Starting from the age of 4, successful applicants are enrolled in the kindergarten offering music, arts, choreography, and science courses. TASS-Yonhap
By Kim Yoo-chul
The government is looking to send about 300,000 tons of food including rice to hunger-stricken North Korea following Washington agreeing with Seoul's decision to provide humanitarian aid, sources at Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said Sunday.
“Seoul is expected to send around 300,000 tons of food products to North Korea in June at the earliest. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are expected to be the delivery channels, though there are concerns over the cost of logistics planning and execution,” a source familiar with the matter said.
The source added Seoul has been receiving requests for rice aid from Pyongyang both officially and unofficially since late last year. “But the government has to be seen to be more accountable as there have been repeated issues with the protection of very low-income North Korean citizens,” he added.
The final details of the food aid provision will be released after working-level discussions between officials and their counterparts in the FAO and WFP, the source added.
The plan came after Ministry of Unification officials said the ministry was near completion of necessary processes to donate $8 million of humanitarian aid to UNICEF and the WFP to help their nutrition support program for children and pregnant women in the impoverished North. The ministry said the donation doesn't directly relate to providing rice to North Korea.
“Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul will soon approve a plan to use the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to donate $4.5 million to the WFP and $3.5 million to UNICEF. The $8 million donation is separate from possible food aid,” another source said by telephone.
More than 11 million North Koreans were “in urgent need of food assistance as their situation could further deteriorate in the latter half of the year due to a continued drought,” Cheong Wa Dae sources said.
But supplying rice to the North is likely to have some impact on rice prices in South Korea as the amount of production in the South is said to have decreased by 50,000 tons because of volatile weather conditions, according to government data.
On a related note, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was said to have asked Vietnam to provide about 280,000 tons of food aid when meeting top Vietnamese government officials during his February visit to Hanoi for a second summit with President Donald Trump.
“The requests didn't materialized as Kim's summit with Trump failed. The ball has been passed to South Korea; however, its plan to send rice to the North still needs a consensus among South Korean citizens,” said one DPK lawmaker.
DPK lawmaker Rep. Seol Hoon, said last week that Seoul may provide 50,000 tons of food aid to North Korea through international organizations, this week, claiming North Korea needs an additional 1.45 million tons to be able to meet citizens' needs.
Since the failure in Hanoi, talks between the Koreas and those between the United States and North Korea aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear program have stalled. President Moon Jae-in is hoping to find a means to break the impasse through his planned meeting with Trump in Seoul, June 30, and other high-profile talks at the upcoming G20 summit to be held in Osaka, Japan, next month.