LOC17:33
14:33 GMT
TOKYO, July 5 (KUNA) -- South Korea is still assessing conditions before
resuming government food aid to North Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported
Tuesday, a day after the European Union (EU) announced a plan to provide its
own emergency aid to the impoverished communist nation.
"The South Korean government continues to review the necessity and
feasibility of aid to North Korea, given various conditions such as food
demand in the North and transparency in distribution," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Cho Byung-jae was quoted as telling reporters in Seoul.
Cho reaffirmed that the government has no plan to resume any government
food aid for North Korea, but has selectively allowed civic groups to send aid
to the North on humanitarian grounds.
The EU said Monday it will send EUR 10 million (USD 14.5 million) in food
aid to help at least 650,000 people in North Korea. South Korea suspended its
annual aid of 400,000 tons of rice in 2008 when conservative President Lee
Myung-bak took office with a policy of linking assistance to progress in
efforts to get North Korea to give up its nuclear programs.
Seoul is also known to have reservations about Washington's move to resume
food aid to Pyongyang, which has not shown any clear sign of keeping its
earlier denuclearization commitment. (end)
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KUNA 051733 Jul 11NNNN