Rival Koreas agree on food aid for hungry North

Rival Koreas agree on food aid for hungry North

BEIJING (Reuter): Red Cross officials from cold war rivals Seoul and Pyongyang signed an agreement yesterday to allow prosperous South Korea to supply 50,000 tons of food aid to its hungry Northern neighbor by the end of July.

The deal was the first between the Red Cross societies of the two hostile ends of the Korean peninsula since 1985 and would help boost overall ties, South Korean officials said.

"We have no doubt that this agreement will (help build momentum) to increase mutual cooperation between (the) two Koreas on the basis of humanitarianism," said South Korean Red Cross official Kogh Young-kee.

Under the accord, which was reached after three days of talks in Beijing, South Korea will supply 50,000 tons of food in its first batch of direct Red Cross aid to the Stalinist North, which is struggling to ward off a looming famine.

Corn would account for most of the food, Kogh said.

However, Seoul officials said they were disappointed that Pyongyang had not accepted the transport of aid through the town of Panmunjom, which straddles the highly militarized border between the two Koreas.

"We are very disappointed not to send through Panmunjom ... Because most of our people want to use the Panmunjom area," said one official after the signing ceremony in a Beijing hotel.

The aid would be transported by other land routes and via North Korean ports, officials said.

North Korea, which takes self-reliance as its guiding ideology, has sought to limit any direct contact involved in taking grain from its southern neighbor, while Seoul wants to maximize exchanges and to make sure its aid is clearly labeled as such.

Pyongyang had accepted that commercial products would retain their labeled packets during distribution and that other food aid would have Red Cross and donor identification, said Kogh.

Capitalist Seoul and communist Pyongyang are technically still at war since the 1950-1953 Korean civil war ended only in a truce, and decades of mutual mistrust have made even basic food aid a delicate diplomatic affair.

Inter-Korean Red Cross talks earlier this month in Beijing failed after Seoul declined to say exactly how much aid it would supply to its Stalinist hermit neighbor, which aid workers say is facing widespread famine.

South Korea later promised to ship US$8 million worth of corn, flour, powdered milk and instant noodles to the North by the end of July.

Seoul officials said the latest round of Beijing talks was stalled at times by Pyongyang's demands for more aid and by the details of how to transport, package and distribute it.