North Korea has made its first official request for South Korea to provide assistance to help the country recover from recent flooding, the South Korean branch of an inter-Korean committee said Wednesday.
"In a fax sent to the South Korean side (of the committee), the North Korean side made a request for assistance with a specific list of relief equipment the North needs while expressing its gratitude for South Korean civic organizations' efforts to help repair flood damage," the committee said in a released statement.
It was the first time for the communist state to request assistance from South Korea since last month's heavy rains that reportedly left hundreds of people dead and thousands of others missing or injured.
Pyongyang had earlier rejected an aid offer by South Korea's National Red Cross, saying it will, or can, overcome the disaster on its own.
The faxed message, however, said the country was in desperate need of food and equipment, and asked the South Korean side of the joint committee to "relay the message to many other related organizations."
The committee is an inter-Korean organization of people working to uphold a joint declaration on inter-Korean reconciliation from a summit between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang on June 15, 2000.
It is largely a civilian organization, but the communist state often uses its side of the joint committee to vent its official or government position on inter-Korean issues.
The request comes while Seoul is mulling over the provision of government assistance for flood recovery efforts in the North, despite its continued suspension of humanitarian aid for the impoverished state.
Seoul regularly provides humanitarian assistance, which includes rice and fertilizer, to the North, but it suspended the aid shipments shortly after Pyongyang test-fired seven ballistic missiles early last month.
The country's highest official on North Korea, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, was scheduled to meet officials from the inter-Korean committee later in the day to discuss possible government support for the civic organization's efforts to aid the flood-hit North, according to Yang Chang-seok, a ministry spokesman.
South Korean civic organizations, with claimed sources in the reclusive North, had said as many as 10,000 people may have been killed or gone missing due to the recent floods there.
The North rarely publicizes its official tally of casualties in natural disasters or likely accidents, but a newspaper published by pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan reported earlier in the week that a total of 549 North Koreans were dead, 295 missing and some 3,000 others injured, citing what it claimed to be "official data" from Pyongyang.
The North Korean message again failed to provide an exact number of casualties, but said damage from the recent floods was "unexpectedly" severe.
"We express our deep gratitude to the South Korean side of the June 15 Committee and other organizations for working to overcome the nation's difficulties caused by unexpected flood damage," said a copy of the message released by the inter-Korean committee.
A number of South Korean civic organizations have sent large amounts of relief and medical supplies, while another shipment of food, mostly flour and instant noodles, and light equipment such as handcarts put together by several civic organizations left a port in the country's western city of Incheon earlier in the day.
The North, however, said it was in more desperate need of construction materials and equipment, such as cement and cargo trucks, rather than instant noodles or clothing, also asking for more medical supplies and food, apparently referring to rice rather than noodles or flour.
The government has yet to lift the suspension of its regular aid to the North, and says it will not do so until the communist state returns to international negotiations over its nuclear ambitions and resumes its self-imposed moratorium on missiles tests.
The unification minister, however, said Tuesday that the suspension of government aid should not prevent civic organizations from sending rice or other supplies, saying it would "not be logical" to say "instant noodles can (be sent), but rice cannot."
Pyongyang has been boycotting the nuclear disarmament talks, that also involve South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States, since November, citing what it claims to be a hostile U.S. policy against its communist government.
The Koreas remain divided along a heavily-fortified border since the end of 1950-53 Korean War that ended with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
Seoul, Aug. 9 (Yonhap News)
N. Korea files official request for flood recovery aid from Seoul |
