Seoul May Give 150,000 Tons of Rice to N. Korea
South Korea has agreed to provide 150,000 metric tons of rice to North Korea free of charge under a tentative accord reached at an official meeting between the two Koreas in Beijing, the domestic news agency Yonhap said Saturday.
It said South Korean representative Lee Suk Chae, vice minister of finance and economy, and Chun Kum Chol, a vice ministerial official from the North, agreed in principle that Pyongyang would accept Seoul’s rice aid.
The rice will be provided without a South Korean label, news reports said. The North, which regularly describes the South as full of beggars, will not accept anything publicly billed as South Korean.
North Korea reportedly has an annual shortfall of 2.5 million tons of grain, about 40% of its needs. With its economy in tatters, the country has little money to import food.
South Korea offered rice to its archrival in May after North Korea, in an unusual admission of problems in the Stalinist state, asked Japan for rice to overcome grain shortages.
Japan said it was willing but would wait for Pyongyang first to accept rice from Seoul.
The talks were the first official dialogue in 15 months, and their resumption could go a long way toward easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
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