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.