South Korea OKs Renewed Rice Cargoes to North

South Korea said Monday that it will resume historic shipments of rice to North Korea after Pyongyang apologized for forcing a South Korean cargo ship to fly the Communist nation’s flag while visiting the North.

South Korean Deputy Unification Minister Song Young Dae told reporters that Cabinet ministers had met and decided to resume rice aid for the North soon.

Song said the government will let called-back ships--the first from the South to enter the North since the 1950-53 Korean War--resume their voyages.

At a meeting in Beijing last month, South Korea agreed to supply 150,000 metric tons of free rice to Pyongyang in a bid to lessen what analysts in Seoul say are chronic food shortages and to ease inter-Korean tensions.

Seoul halted deliveries Friday after Pyongyang forced a South Korean cargo ship, the Sea Apex, to fly the North Korean flag as it entered Chongjin harbor.

But the North acceded later the same day to a South Korean demand for an apology at the ministerial level.