South Korea to fly in aid to northern neighbour

IN the first inter-Korean cargo flight, South Korea's Red Cross will transport blankets, medicine and other aid to North Korea today to help the communist nation cope with the aftermath of the devastating train explosion of April 22.

The relief flight will be in addition to $25 million in building materials, food and other goods Seoul plans to start shipping next week to Ryongchon, the town where the blast killed 161 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

A South Korean ship loaded with instant noodles, blankets and bottled water worth $1 million arrived in a northern port yesterday after a day-long voyage.

South Korea has been quick to respond to the North's request for help after the tragedy, although Pyongyang has rejected Seoul's offer to truck supplies across their heavily fortified border, seriously slowing the transport of emergency supplies.

The North also refused to let South Korean doctors go to the area, where thousands of homeless families have been living in tents without adequate sanitation or water.

South Korean passenger planes have occasionally been allowed to fly to the communist country, but this will be the first South Korean cargo plane to travel to the North.

As the campaign for international aid gained speed, South Korea yesterday accepted the North's requests for cement, food, diesel oil and petrol. Most of the aid will go through China's Dandong port on the North Korean border before May 15, as requested by Pyongyang.

Russia The United States, China, Australia, Germany and Japan also have offered aid.

Meanwhile, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan reported that a boy was rescued four days after the blast buried his primary school under broken tiles and gravel. "I am hungry," the boy said as he was pulled out.

Nearly 400 victims of the explosion remained hospitalised many of them children.

A World Health Organisation team visited four hospitals in the area four days ago and said "an estimated two-thirds of the injured they saw are children," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.

The North's official news agency reported the explosion's shock wave of glass, rubble and heat left many blind and deaf, or with severe burns and eye injuries.