S. Korea voices reservations on food aid to N. Korea despite EU decision

SEOUL, July 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea said Tuesday it was still assessing conditions before resuming government food aid to North Korea, a day after the European Union (EU) announced a plan to provide its own emergency aid to the impoverished communist nation.
"The government continues to review the necessity and feasibility of aid to North Korea, given various conditions such as food demand in the North and transparency in distribution," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae told reporters.
Cho reaffirmed that the government has no plan to resume any government food aid for North Korea, but has selectively allowed civic groups to send aid to the North on humanitarian grounds.
"With regard to the issue of the food situation in North Korea, the government has been in consultations with donors like the EU and the United States as well as international organizations," Cho said.
The spokesman said the EU had notified the South Korean government that it will send the aid before Monday's announcement.
The EU said it will send 10 million euros (US$14.5 million) in food aid to help at least 650,000 people in North Korea.
South Korea suspended its annual aid of 400,000 tons of rice in 2008 when conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office with a policy of linking assistance to progress in efforts to get North Korea to give up its nuclear programs.
Inter-Korean relations plunged to one of their lowest levels last year, following the North's two deadly military attacks on the South.
Seoul is also known to have reservations about Washington's move to resume food aid to Pyongyang, which has not shown any clear sign of keeping its earlier denuclearization commitment.