Seoul (AsiaNews) - South Korea this morning approved the first shipment of humanitarian aid to North Korea since military tensions and Pyongyang's provocations forced Seoul to stop all cooperation.
"The approval is strictly for humanitarian purposes and should not be read as a message to condone North Korea's recent provocations," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-Suk said.
Eugene Bell, a US-South Korean charity, was given the green light to ship tuberculosis medicine worth US$ 605,000 for its medical service programme in the North, the unification ministry explained.
The situation in the Korean peninsula continues to be very tense. Since 2008, North Korea's nuclear experiments have led to the strong opposition by South Korea and the international community. Seoul has called on Pyongyang's new dictator Kim Jong-un to "take a step back" from his country's nuclear programme in exchange for greater economic and financial aid.
However, in December 2012 and in February of this year, the North responded with two nuclear tests, with rocket launches presented as "meteorological tests."
The United Nations reacted with a new round of economic sanctions. Pyongyang responded by directly threatening Seoul and even Washington.
Meanwhile, UN Human Rights Council yesterday set up a commission of inquiry into human-rights violations in North Korea.
The Commission was established by a UN resolution, moved by a new report released on 7 March 2013 that showed civilian villages being incorporated into detention camps.