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) mk.hb KUNA 051733 Jul 11NNNN