North Korea seeks flood aid from South for first time

North Korea has requested help from South Korea to cope with devastating floods, a South Korean citizens’ group said today, a move that could improve inter-Korean relations chilled by the North’s recent missile test-launches.

It was the first time the communist nation has officially requested South Korean aid since the floods in mid-July spawned by heavy rains that left at least 549 people dead and 295 missing.

The North asked South Korea to provide food, blankets and medical supplies, along with construction materials and equipment including cement and trucks to help recover from the disaster, Park Ji-yong, an official at a South Korean committee working for reconciliation between the Koreas.

“We expressed thanks for various (South Korean) groups’ efforts,” the North’s reconciliation committee said in a fax message to its South Korean counterpart.

The two committees are private organisations dedicated to implementing a joint declaration calling for inter-Korean rapprochement and co-operation that was adopted at a landmark inter-Korean summit in 2000.

Though the North’s committee is nominally a civic group, it often acts as an unofficial mouthpiece for the isolated communist regime that doesn’t tolerate anything other than its official line.

North Korea had initially said it would handle the disaster on its own and rejected aid from South Korea’s Red Cross, but a North Korean official said last week the country was in urgent need of food and would accept aid from South Korea.

South Korea has said recently it would consider contributing to private groups’ aid missions for North Korean flood victims amid growing calls at home for aid to the South’s impoverished neighbour.

South Korea’s Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok told a meeting of civic leaders today that Seoul plans to match and contribute more than the funds civic groups raise for relief aid to the North, an official from an aid organisation said, asking not to be identified citing the sensitivity of issue.

South and North Korean committee officials were also scheduled on Friday to meet at North Korea's Diamond Mountain resort to discuss ways to help the North, according to the South’s committee.

Seoul had refused last month to discuss regular humanitarian aid during high-level talks with North Korea, after the North Koreans refused to address the country’s missile or nuclear programmes.

The North test-launched seven missiles last month, raising regional tension and drawing UN Security Council sanctions.

A South Korean private relief group sent flood relief aid to the North last week.

The North has told international aid groups operating in the country that it doesn’t want them to launch an emergency appeal on its behalf. Such aid would likely come with requirements of strict monitoring to insure those affected are benefiting, unlike with past South Korean aid that is virtually unmonitored.

The North last year demanded a halt to international food aid it had been receiving since the mid-1990s, when natural disasters and mismanagement led to famine that killed an estimated two million people.

Pyongyang claimed it didn’t want to develop a culture of dependency, but nonetheless still accepted aid from China and South Korea.