“While North Korea is suffering from serious food crisis, South Korea is overflowing with rice,” JPAPM leaders said, slamming the South Korean government for using the difficult situation in the North for tactical advantage, which in their view can “only intensify anger and provoke antagonism” between the two sides.

Since he came to power, President Lee has subordinated food and other aid to Pyongyang’s willingness to end its nuclear programme, a condition the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-il has always rejected, using instead the atomic bomb to blackmail the international community.

For the Christian activists, the “first step” in reducing tensions is to help North Koreans through humanitarian aid in this moment of difficulty.

The National Conference of Churches in Korea (NCCK) agrees; it too has called on the Lee Administration to send rice and other foodstuff to the North.

Some 500 farmers from the National Federation of Farmers’ Associations held a rally on Tuesday outside Nonsan City Hall in South Chungcheong Province, calling for higher rice prices, but also renewed rice shipment to North Korea.

Meanwhile, delegates representing South Korea’s five largest religious communities (Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Choendogyo and Won Buddhist) travelled to North Korea on 27 August, bringing 300 tonnes of wheat flour.

“The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is important,” they said, but ensuring food and survival for everyone on the peninsula comes first.

This is the second shipment of humanitarian aid to the North since 24 May, when the South Korean government banned visits and aid shipment to North Korea in retaliation for the seeking of ROKS Cheonan by the North Korean Navy.