Seoul to give 100,000 tons of rice to flood-ravaged N. Korea: official

South Korea is to begin shipping 100,000 tons of rice and other emergency relief supplies to North Korea before the end of this month to help repair damages from recent flooding there, a senior government official said Sunday.

The one-time emergency relief aid will be the first shipment of Seoul's government assistance for the North since the suspension of its periodic humanitarian aid for the impoverished state.

"The government's decision was made based on pure humanitarian considerations of flood damages in the North and calls from (South Korea's) civic organizations and political circles" to help the North, Vice Unification Minister Shin Un-sang told a press briefing.

Seoul suspended shipments of its regular assistance, including rice and fertilizer, to the North shortly after Pyongyang test-fired seven ballistic missiles early last month. The launches prompted the U.N. Security Council to unanimously pass a resolution condemning the tests and prohibiting any missile-related dealings with the communist state.

"As the government has said before, the aid package this time is emergency relief aid that comes strictly from humanitarian considerations," Shin said.

"It is separate from (the government's periodic) aid that has been provided annually as loans," he said.

The vice minister said the rice aid would cost some 195 billion won (US$203 million), and the shipment would also include some 26 billion won worth of construction supplies and equipment, including 100,000 tons of cement, 5,000 tons of steel and 100 trucks.

The Choson Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in Japan, had earlier reported, quoting what it claimed to be an official tally by Pyongyang, that some 800 North Koreans were either killed or missing and some 3,000 others were injured due to heavy rains on July 14-16.

But North Korean officials at an inter-Korean Red Cross meeting on Saturday said some 150 people were killed or missing, according to Shin.

International aid workers based in the communist North have estimated that about 30,000 hectares of farmland were washed away or submerged during last month's heavy rains, leading to a loss of some 100,000 tons of crops in the country already suffering from chronic food shortages.

North Korea has depended on international handouts, mostly from Seoul, to feed a large number of its people since the mid-1990s when a nationwide famine hit the country, leaving as many as 2 million people dead.

"The reason the government decided to include rice in the shipment is because there were repeated requests from the North.

The reason it decided to make it 100,000 tons is because we thought that if we provide any (rice), we need to make it worthwhile," a ministry official told reporters while speaking on condition of anonymity.

The government had said the minimum condition for the resumption of its regular humanitarian assistance for the North is Pyongyang's return to international negotiations over its nuclear arms program.

The communist state has been boycotting the nuclear talks, that also involve South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States, since a November round, citing what it claims to be U.S. hostility toward it.

South and North Korea have technically remained in a state of war since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War as the fratricidal conflict only ended with a cease-fire. Nearly 1.8 million troops are on both sides of their heavily-fortified border.

Seoul, Aug. 20 (Yonhap News)