Seoul sends relief aid to Pyongyang

Seoul sends relief aid to Pyongyang

SEOUL (Reuter): The South Korean Red Cross yesterday shipped blankets and noodles to famine-stricken North Korea, but efforts to mount an international relief effort were stymied with negotiations in Honolulu ending without agreement.

A Red Cross spokesman said the aid shipment comprised 100,000 packs of instant noodles, 20,000 pairs of socks and 2,000 blankets.

"The shipment is the third in a series of aid provision to the North," he said, adding that the South Korean Red Cross planned to send further aid worth 200 million won (US$126,600) to the North this year.

He said the vessel, which left the port of Inchon was expected to arrive at the North Korean port of Nampo early on Saturday.

But talks in Hawaii between the United States, South Korea and Japan failed to resolve the dispute between the three nations on how to help North Korea.

Speaking for all three delegations, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord said the food situation in North Korea was high on the agenda, but the talks were hampered by the lack of information from one of the world's most isolationist nations.

Washington has suggested it is ready to provide aid but Seoul has said it would not offer food aid unless Pyongyang drops its hostile attitude.

South Korea is still smarting from a series of insults from the North last year, even after it responded to an emergency appeal for grain. Among other things, Pyongyang seized a southern fishing vessel and forced a grain ship from the South to fly the North Korean flag.

According to reports from United Nations commissions working in North Korea and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), an estimated 130,000 people could die because of the famine, caused by crop loss from severe flooding and an unusually harsh winter.

But South Korea said international reports of famine in the North were exaggerated.

"Grain output in North Korea last year appears to be enough to feed North Koreans until this summer. I see no serious famine immediately in the North," National Unification Minister Kwon O- kie said in a National Assembly hearing yesterday.

Kwon reaffirmed that the South would not provide aid unless North Korea formally asked for it.

Another South Korean Red Cross spokesman said two IFRC officials, including Simon Missiri, deputy director of the Asia and Pacific Department, were due to arrive in Seoul via Beijing today after a four-day inspection tour of the North.

"They will brief us on their trip and discuss ways to extend further aid to the North," the spokesman said.

The South Korean Red Cross sent 5,000 blankets last November and 3,000 blankets a month later to the North.

North Korea earlier this month appealed for more foreign aid to feed its population.

Meanwhile, Japan will continue consultations with the United States and South Korea over the issue of food aid to North Korea, Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda said today.

A ministry official said Ikeda made the remarks after talks with South Korean ambassador Kim Tae-zhee, who had sought a briefing on the policies of recently-elected Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's government towards North Korea.

Ikeda said it was important for the three countries to keep in close cooperation with each other, although each would not take the same action.

"In this context, it is important to hold talks in Hawaii," Ikeda told Kim.