Seoul: North Korea is asking private South Korean groups for urgent food aid even though it has still not accepted an offer from Seoul's government, a report said on Thursday.
Dong-A Ilbo newspaper, quoting an unidentified South Korean relief worker, said the North's state Inter-Korean Reconciliation Council made a recent appeal in China to South Korean civic organisations.
"It asked them to send food even if just 50 to 100 tons," the worker told Dong-A. "It seems the North will not refuse any support even if the amount is far smaller than expected."
Experts say the North's chronic food shortage is likely to worsen in the coming year as its rice and corn harvests have been damaged by bad weather.
However, as of Thursday the North had still not responded to the Seoul government's proposal to provide 10,000 tons of corn, ten days after the offer was made.
Local media reports have said the planned shipment is just one tenth of the amount the North requested during talks last month. Seoul officials say no specific amount was mentioned.
Civic groups could not confirm the North's request but said they were launching campaigns to feed their communist neighbour.
The Korean Sharing Movement, which has launched a fundraising drive to provide 10,000 tons of corn this year, said it had so far sent 6,200 tons.
Good Neighbours International plans to send 50 tons of corn, and the International Corn Foundation intends to send 133 tons of corn via the Chinese border town of Dandong.
Under previous liberal governments Seoul sent around 400,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertiliser a year across the border.
But shipments stopped after a conservative government took office and linked major aid to progress on nuclear disarmament, angering Pyongyang.
Good Friends, a welfare group which works in the North, said last month Pyongyang was engaged in a desperate drive to import grain after its government reported that food shortages would worsen further next year.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, November 05, 2009, 12:24