S. Korea to deliver anti-viral sanitizer to N. Korea next week

SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korea said Tuesday it will send 1 billion won
(US$866,000) worth of hand sanitizer next week to North Korea to help the
impoverished neighbor combat the spread of the H1N1 flu virus.

The shipment of 200,000 liters of sanitizer, scheduled for next Monday, comes
after South Korea delivered some $15 million in anti-viral medications to the
North in December in the first state-level cross-border humanitarian aid in
nearly two years.
North Korea first acknowledged cases of Influenza A virus infection on Dec. 9,
but it has yet to report any flu-related deaths.
The hand sanitizer will be transported to the North Korean border town of Kaesong
on South Korean trucks across the military demarcation line and handed to the
North there, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.
"North Korea agreed to accept the aid on Feb. 22," he told reporters, adding
about 20 25-ton trucks will likely be mobilized to deliver the aid.
The Tamiflu aid in December marked the first humanitarian assistance provided by
the South Korean government to North Korea since conservative President Lee
Myung-bak took office in Seoul in early 2008. Lee cut off the unconditional aid
that his liberal predecessors had shipped to the North over the past decade,
conditioning exchanges on progress in the North's denuclearization.
The inter-Korean aid comes amid a flurry of diplomacy in the region on ways to
resume a multilateral negotiating forum on ending the North's nuclear arms
program.
Flu infections are widely transmitted via contact with the hands, raising demand
for hand sanitation products.
(END)

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