S. Korea pledges additional aid for Haiti: Lee

SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak pledged to
provide additional emergency relief to Haiti, where tens of thousands are thought
to have died in a deadly earthquake, the presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, said
Sunday.
"The South Korean government has first started to send emergency relief worth
US$1 million, and we plan to provide additional support to join the relief
efforts led by the United Nations," Lee was quoted as saying to U.N. Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon over the telephone Saturday evening.
"I feel sorry for the loss in people's lives and property from the quake that
occurred in the beginning of the New Year," Lee said, also offering condolences
to the families of U.N. staff who died during the mission in Haiti, according to
Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye.
"Korean people are conducting a campaign to raise donations, and the disaster
assistance team will be arriving in Haiti through an inland route," Kim said.
Lee also stressed that his once-poor country should play an active role in
assisting Haiti, as it was able to emerge as a developed nation with the help the
international community, Kim said.
The government on Thursday sent a 35-member disaster assistance team and supplies
worth US$1 million to the Caribbean state. Another seven-member medical support
team was dispatched Friday.
The 7.0-magnitude earthquake is said to have destroyed thousands of buildings and
homes, with tens of thousands of bodies still buried in the rubble.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
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