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SEOUL: South Korea said Thursday it would resume humanitarian aid for North Korean flood victims next week, in another sign of warming relations since the North pledged to scrap its nuclear weapons.
Vice Unification Minister Shin Eon-Sang said the shipment of flood aid, suspended after the North's missile launches last July, would begin on March 28.
"We will start shipping blankets from March 28, followed by the shipment of rice, trucks, cement and iron bars between April and May," he told reporters.
Altogether, South Korea will send 10,500 tons of rice, 70,415 tons of cement, 50 trucks, 60,000 blankets and 1,800 tons of iron bars, he said.
Next Tuesday, the South will also send the first batch of fertiliser aid to the North.
South Korea suspended its regular annual shipments of 500,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertiliser after the missile tests, and special aid for flood victims was also halted.
Relations were strained further by the North's nuclear test in October.
Seoul agreed to resume fertiliser aid to its impoverished neighbour after the North agreed during six-nation talks on February 13 to dismantle its nuclear programmes.
Early this month the two Koreas resumed high-level bilateral talks and the South agreed in principle to restart its regular annual rice aid.
The two nations also pledged to restart a series of other programmes to improve relations, such as reunions of families divided since the 1950-53 war.
They will hold a new round of face-to-face family reunions at Mount Kumgang on May 9-14, while family reunions via video link will be held at the resort on March 27-29. - AFP/yy
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