Unification ministry closes N. Korea aid unit, bolsters intelligence

SEOUL, May 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's unification ministry on Tuesday closed its bureau on humanitarian aid to North Korea and created a new one to better analyze Pyongyang's internal politics as part of government restructuring.

The Cabinet approved the ministry's proposal to shut down its Humanitarian
Cooperation Bureau and set up the tentatively-named Political Analysis Bureau,
Kim Jung-tae, assistant minister for planning and coordination, said in a press
briefing.
"The restructuring aims to strengthen the ministry's long-term unification policy
and intelligence analysis and merge overlapped low-level units," Kim explained.
He said the humanitarian aid bureau's closure will bring no functional changes,
as its four divisions were either absorbed into the Inter-Korean Exchanges and
Cooperation Bureau or the higher-level Unification Policy Office. But the move
has raised concerns, given the bureau's symbolic significance in non-political
exchanges.
The humanitarian aid bureau, established in late 1996, was in charge of sending
humanitarian aid to the North, arranging reunions of families separated by the
Korean War and assisting with the resettlement of North Korean defectors in the
South.
The revamping comes as inter-Korean relations have dipped to their lowest level
in a decade. Seoul suspended rice and fertilizer aid after Lee took office in
February last year, vowing to take a tougher stance on North Korea's nuclear
program. Pyongyang cut off government-level dialogue and stopped reunions of
families separated by the 1950-53 war. The political freeze considerably reduced
the humanitarian bureau's functions.
In an April 9 reshuffle, North Korea also abolished a Cabinet-level committee on
economic cooperation with South Korea, which was set up amid brisk relations in
2004.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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