S. Korea expects North will accept corn aid By Kim Hyun

SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea expects the North to accept its offer of small-scale corn aid and has begun preparations for what would be the first food shipment to the communist neighbor in nearly two years, an official said Tuesday.

North Korea has yet to respond to a fax message the South Korean Red Cross sent
on Monday offering 10,000 tons of corn and other humanitarian aid for children,
mothers and other vulnerable people in the impoverished country.
"There has been no particular response by the North yet," Unification Ministry
spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said at a press briefing.
"But the Red Cross believes the North will accept (the aid) and is proceeding
with preparations," she said.
In Red Cross talks on Oct. 16, North Korea made its first official request for
assistance from Seoul's conservative Lee Myung-bak government.
The request came as political relations showed signs of improving, with North
Korea reaching out to the South and the United States in a shift from the
confrontational mode following Pyongyang's rocket launch and nuclear test last
spring.
South Korea's aid consists of 10,000 tons of corn (worth US$33 million), 20 tons
of milk powder and some medicine. The ministry has said the purchase, packing and
shipment of the aid will take a month or so.
Lee's liberal predecessors annually provided about 300,000 tons of fertilizer and
400,000 tons of rice to the North over the past decade. But the large-scale aid
came to a complete halt last year as the conservative president toughened up on
the North's nuclear program, conditioning inter-Korean exchanges on progress
toward denuclearization.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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