Gov't to Send W2 Billion in Aid to N.Korea

The government decided Monday to send W2 billion worth of goods to North Korea for disaster relief through the Korean Red Cross (US$1=W1,164).

In June South Korea approved an aid package worth US$8 million and earlier this month another $5 million to be delivered through an international agency.

The $8 million package was approved even though North Korea blustered that it would accept no aid from the South after the second U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi collapsed. The other aid approved just ahead of a year-end deadline set by North Korea for the U.S. to make concessions in stalled nuclear talks.

The North Korean propaganda mouthpiece Meari has denounced the aid as "insulting."

"South Korean authorities are gravely insulting us while talking about the improvement of inferior healthcare conditions in the North or the improvement of North Koreans' quality of life," it thundered. "It is their sly motive to defame our style of people-centered socialism and tarnish the dignified image" of the North, it added.