The Committee for Preparation for Reunification
Today, the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Reunification announced a plan to deliver monetary aid to North Korea to help fund their Mother and Child Health Project. The money will be sent to North Korea through the World Food Plan (WFP) and World Health Organization (WHO). The Korean administration is hoping this act will improve diplomatic relations with North Korea and spark further economic cooperation.
WFP will be sending around 7 million USD to North Korea. These funds will be used specifically for building facilities for childbirth and healthcare for pregnant women. In addition, WHO will be delivering around 6.3 million USD to help with modifying North Korea’s medical facilities, medicine, and bringing in crucial medical technology.
This is not the first time South Korea has sent monetary aid to their northern cousins since political relationships between the two Koreas became virtually non-existent since the Bush Administration. In 2007, South Korea sent 20 million dollars through the WFP which helped to provide medical care and food for children.
This is however, the first time the South Korean administration directly funded North Korea with humanitarian purposes. So far, the government has only funded non-government organizations and humanitarian groups who specifically work to aid North Korea. Eui-do Kim, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Reunification announced they had decided on this new policy in light of WFP and WHO’s original plans to fund DPRK.
Meanwhile the ministry announced a plan to dispatch members of the foundation for South-North Economic and Cultural Cooperation to the North Korean city of Gae-sung to begin negotiations for the funds.
A great deal of tension has risen between North and South Korea. Only last month, DPRK’s Peoples’ Army test fired a number of Scud class ballistic missiles into the Eastern Sea, and earlier they fired 500 shells from artillery that landed just outside the NLL (Northern Limit Line), the two Koreas’ maritime border.
