Lee In-young: "Approval for Private Organizations' Humanitarian Aid Material Export to North Korea Resumes Starting Today"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] The government will resume approval for the export of humanitarian aid materials to North Korea by private organizations starting from the 30th. This comes 10 months after the killing of our public official in the West Sea.

On the morning of the 30th, Minister Lee stated at a press briefing with the Ministry of Unification press corps that, as part of follow-up measures after the restoration of communication lines, "We plan to resume approval for the export of humanitarian aid materials by private organizations, which had been temporarily suspended, starting today."

Minister Lee said, "The export approval is based on the voluntary cooperation of private organizations and had not been granted since the 'West Sea Incident' last September, but we intend to resume it after 10 months. There have been continuous requests from humanitarian private organizations, and we will make decisions by comprehensively considering North Korea’s health situation and the urgency of nutritional supplies."

He added, "Starting with two cases this afternoon, we plan to continuously approve matters related to humanitarian cooperation if they meet the requirements. We want to clearly state that no political intentions will be involved in the process of humanitarian cooperation."

Additionally, Minister Lee said, "Going a step further from the resumption of communication channels, we will promptly complete a dialogue system between South and North Korea that allows for video meetings and safe face-to-face meetings even under COVID-19 circumstances. Now that communication channels between the two Koreas have been restored, we will proceed with preparations to hold talks at any time by consulting with the North on our plans to establish communication channels."

Regarding this, he said, "Yesterday, our side proposed through our liaison office to discuss the establishment of a video meeting system, and the North received the document containing our proposal. We hope the North will respond actively so that the video meeting system can be established promptly."

Furthermore, Minister Lee stated, "Even before holding inter-Korean talks, we want to explore exchanging information on urgent matters needed by residents of both Koreas through the newly opened communication channels. First, we will seek ways to exchange information related to disasters and emergencies, such as weather information on heavy rain and typhoons, prior notification regarding shared river discharges, and the resumption of infectious disease information exchange, which both Koreas have already agreed upon."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.