Korea to offer relief supplies to quake-hit Japan
Korea will provide $100,000 worth of relief supplies to Japan, which was hit by massive earthquakes last week, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said Friday.
Two C-130 military transport planes carrying blankets, bottled water, tents and other supplies will arrive in the worst-hit Kumamoto prefecture in southern Japan on Friday afternoon, the ministry said in a press release.
Two powerful earthquakes struck the southern Japanese island of Kyushu last Thursday and Saturday, leaving nearly 60 dead and more than a thousand injured.
Seoul's announcement of relief support to Japan came amid growing speculation that it might be reluctant to actively support its neighbor in the midst of renewed tensions over Japan's repeated claim to the South's easternmost islets of Dokdo and other historical issues.
On Monday, President Park Geun-hye sent a message to Tokyo to express her condolences to the victims of the quakes and their families, and Seoul's desire to offer relief support, the ministry revealed in the press release.
In the wake of an earthquake in eastern Japan in 2011, Korea sent to the island country a contingent of 120 emergency workers along with blankets, food and other relief supplies. (Yonhap)