Aid to North Korea

[Anchor Lead]

The South Korean government has decided to provide humanitarian aid to infants and expectant mothers in North Korea worth eight million U.S. dollars. The Unification Ministry made the decision in a meeting of an inter-Korean exchange and cooperation promotion committee at the Seoul Government Complex on Thursday morning. This marks the first promise of aid to the North since the Moon Jae-in government took office. Of the eight million-dollar fund, 4.5 million dollars will go to the World Food Program's project to provide nutritional supplements to North Korean children and pregnant women. The remaining 3.5 million dollars will be used for UNICEF's project to send vaccines and essential medical supplies to North Korean children and expectant mothers. The government has not yet decided on an exact timing to provide the aid, considering extreme anti-North Korean sentiments in the South over the regime’s repeated nuclear and missile provocations. Aid to North Korea through international organizations has been suspended since North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January 2016. Seoul last provided aid worth 800,000 U.S. dollars to the UN Population Fund in December 2015.