By Kim Young-jin
Seoul indicated Tuesday it would allow civic groups to mobilize flour along with other forms of aid to North Korea, in what would be a positive gesture amid persisting tensions.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including the Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, a coalition of aid groups, have called on the government to approve their shipments of flour, which have been banned since Pyongyang’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November last year.
In response, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity, “The government has not excluded flour from a list of aid items to the North.”
The remark came days after a ranking official said Seoul would widen the humanitarian activities despite an ongoing spat over the shelling as well as the sinking of the warship Cheonan eight months earlier.
The ministry, which cut off all aid in response to the shelling, has been slowly widening humanitarian activity in response to calls from civic society.
It also came weeks after the European Union announced it would send assistance worth 10 million euros to the impoverished country in a deal that Brussels said won high levels of monitoring access.
The official said any flour must be monitored to confirm its successful delivery, but added the level of transparency “would not be at the level demanded by the EU” from Pyongyang.
Seoul has yet to resume any government-level aid.
Many suspect that much of the past assistance given to the North was diverted for military purposes. The United Nations estimates that some 6 million people there are in dire need of food.