ID :
198836
Wed, 08/03/2011 - 05:30
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/198836
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S. Korean flour monitors leave for N. Korea
By Kim Kwang-tae
SEOUL (Yonhap) - A coalition of South Korean civic groups sent officials to Pyongyang on Wednesday for a rare mission to ensure its recent food aid to North Korea reaches the intended beneficiaries, an official said.
Six civilian monitors were to arrive in the North's capital later in the day via Beijing for a four-day trip to Sariwon, a city south of Pyongyang, said Lee Hyo-jung of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation.
The monitors will verify whether 300 tons of flour, delivered to the North last week for the first time since the North's deadly shelling of a front-line South Korean island last year, was distributed to children and other recipients, Lee said.
The aid is the first shipment of a total of 2,500 tons of flour scheduled to be sent to the North by the end of the month.
Seoul imposed sanctions on the North last year in retaliation for the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island and the March sinking of the Cheonan warship, though it has selectively approved humanitarian and medical assistance to its impoverished neighbor.
The trip comes amid widespread allegations that the North could divert outside food aid to its elite and military, a key backbone of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's rule.
The North has relied on foreign handouts since the late 1990s when it suffered a massive famine that was estimated to have killed 2 million people.
SEOUL (Yonhap) - A coalition of South Korean civic groups sent officials to Pyongyang on Wednesday for a rare mission to ensure its recent food aid to North Korea reaches the intended beneficiaries, an official said.
Six civilian monitors were to arrive in the North's capital later in the day via Beijing for a four-day trip to Sariwon, a city south of Pyongyang, said Lee Hyo-jung of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation.
The monitors will verify whether 300 tons of flour, delivered to the North last week for the first time since the North's deadly shelling of a front-line South Korean island last year, was distributed to children and other recipients, Lee said.
The aid is the first shipment of a total of 2,500 tons of flour scheduled to be sent to the North by the end of the month.
Seoul imposed sanctions on the North last year in retaliation for the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island and the March sinking of the Cheonan warship, though it has selectively approved humanitarian and medical assistance to its impoverished neighbor.
The trip comes amid widespread allegations that the North could divert outside food aid to its elite and military, a key backbone of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's rule.
The North has relied on foreign handouts since the late 1990s when it suffered a massive famine that was estimated to have killed 2 million people.
