S. Korea suspends humanitarian aid to DPRK
9/10/2006 17:15
The South Korean government announced today that it had decided to suspend
scheduled humanitarian aid to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
as a result of Pyongyang's nuclear test.
"A ship was scheduled to depart from
[South Korea's] Donghae port, carrying 4,000 tons of concrete on Tuesday, but we
decided to delay the shipment under the current circumstances," said an unnamed
official with the Unification Ministry.
However, the decision does not
immediately affect all scheduled shipments of humanitarian assistance although
there is such a possibility, the official added.
South Korea pledged to
provide about 240 billion won (US$250 million) worth of humanitarian aid,
including 100,000 tons of rice and 100,000 tons of concrete, to the DPRK to help
victims of massive floods in July.
The decision came after DPRK announced
that it successfully conducted a nuclear test Monday morning. South Korea has
strongly denounced the test.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook
called an emergency meeting of economic ministers Monday afternoon to assess the
impact of DPRK's nuclear test on the economy and discuss measures to deal with
possible negative effects.
xinhua
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