S. Korea to send food aid to North despite threat

SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will send food aid to North Korea as
planned, despite the North's threat over the South's reported contingency plan
for a possible collapse of the Pyongyang government, an official said Saturday.

On Friday, the North's military threatened to launch a "holy war of retaliation
to blow away" the South Korean government, angered by a local news report that
Seoul revised a plan to handle any emergency situation in the North.
The threat came minutes before the North Korean Red Cross said it accepted 10,000
tons of corn in food aid proposed by the South.
"The government's basic stance is that it will calmly deal with" the North's
threat, said an official at the South Korean government. "And there is no change
to send the corn in humanitarian aid to the North."
The North's verbal threat of retaliation against South Korea, which isn't
unusual, was seen as contradictory because it comes amid Pyongyang's recent
reconciliatory gestures toward the South.
This week, North Korea proposed holding talks with the South to resume a tour
program to the North's scenic mountain resort, which has been suspended for more
than a year following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist who had
strayed into a restricted zone there.
Officials from Seoul and Pyongyang plan to meet next week to discuss their recent
overseas survey to promote a joint industrial complex in the North's border city
of Kaesong.
"North Korea's stance is expected to become clear at the Jan. 19 meeting," said
the South Korean official, referring to the meeting on the Kaesong complex.
(END)