Civic groups deliver rare flour aid to N. Korea

SEOUL, July 26 (Yonhap) -- A team of civic group officials on Tuesday delivered 300 tons of flour aid for vulnerable North Koreans in what became the first dispatch of flour since the North's deadly attack on a South Korean island.
The six-member delegation, including officials from the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation (KCRC) and the Join Together Society (JTS), handed over the flour, carried on 12 trucks, after crossing into the North Korean border city of Kaesong by land. It was the first delivery of flour to the impoverished nation since the Korean Methodist Church gave 36 tons last November, shortly before the North bombarded the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, killing two marines and two civilians.



Seoul halted all forms of aid in the wake of the attack, although in March, it began to selectively allow private groups to provide aid for poverty-stricken North Koreans. Flour had been an exception on concerns that it may be diverted to the military or ruling elites, but the government gave approval Monday amid budding signs of a thaw in inter-Korean relations.
The KCRC, a coalition of pro-unification civic and social groups, said the flour will be distributed to daycare centers, kindergartens and children's hospitals in the city of Sariwon, North Hwanghae Province. It plans to send a total of 2,500 tons of flour for 82,000 North Koreans by the end of August, and send monitors to the site to ensure fair distribution.
Tuesday's flour aid worth 180 million won (US$171,200) was donated by the KCRC and the JTS, as well as numerous relief agencies such as Good Neighbors, World Vision and Korea Food for the Hungry International.



"I hope this flour will become the flour of life for North Koreans who are at risk of losing their lives, and also the flour of reconciliation in mending ties between the South and the North," said Kim Deog-ryong, the standing chairman of the KCRC. He was speaking at a send-off ceremony held in the tourism pavilion of Imjingak in the South's border city of Paju.
The South Korean government has yet to resume sending large-scale food aid as tensions with the North linger over the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island and the sinking of a South Korean warship last year. The two attacks killed a total of 50 South Koreans. Seoul has also tied aid to the North's denuclearization efforts since the Lee Myung-bak administration came to power in 2008.
Meanwhile, the European Union announced early this month that it will deliver aid worth 10 million euros to help feed 650,000 North Koreans.