S. Korean Red Cross aid to North Korea hits zero

SEOUL, Oct. 15 (Yonhap) -- Humanitarian aid to North Korea by South Korea's Red
Cross dropped to nil this year after a rapid decline in 2008, mirroring strained
political relations across the border, a lawmaker said here Thursday, citing
internal data.
Rep. Kwak Jung-sook of the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party said North
Korea aid provided by the National Red Cross plunged to 1.8 billion won (US$1.55
million) last year, compared to 140 billion won worth of aid in 2007 and 200
billion won in 2006.
There has been no humanitarian aid shipment so far this year to the North out of
the Red Cross budget, Kwak said in a press release, citing a report from the Red
Cross submitted for an ongoing parliamentary audit.
The decline apparently was in tandem with the Lee Myung-bak government's decision
last year to suspend government-level aid to Pyongyang until North Korea makes
meaningful step toward denuclearization. Rice and fertilizer aid remain
suspended.
The Red Cross has mostly supplied medicine, dietary supplements and clothes,
which are in short supply in the North.
"Assistance to the vulnerable people in the North, like children and the elderly,
should be continued on humanitarian grounds," Kwak said. Red Cross officials were
not immediately available for comment.
The Koreas will hold Red Cross talks on Friday in the North's border town of
Kaesong to discuss arranging a new round of reunions for families separated by
the Korean War (1950-1953). Reunions were held late September for the first time
in nearly two years in a sign of slowly improving relations between the two
governments.
On Wednesday, North Korea expressed regrets and offered condolences over the
deaths of six South Koreans who were killed in a flash flood caused when the
North opened a dam.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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