Ministry of Unification "Attempted to Call North Korea... No Response to Flood Relief Offer"

Ministry of Unification Tried Inter-Korean Contact Channel but Received No Response
"Will Not Prejudge Situation, Expecting Prompt Reply"

The government has offered flood relief assistance to North Korea, but North Korea has remained unresponsive.

Kim In-ae, deputy spokesperson of the Ministry of Unification, stated at a regular briefing held at the Government Seoul Office on the 1st, "We have been attempting to make contact through the inter-Korean joint liaison office communication channel, but so far there has been no response from the North." The government announced on the previous day around 5 p.m. that it was willing to provide flood relief supplies to North Korea in the name of the Secretary General of the Korean Red Cross. This is the first flood relief offer in 12 years since September 2012.

Kim In-ae, Deputy Spokesperson of the Ministry of Unification [Photo by Yonhap News]

The inter-Korean communication channel is agreed to operate at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. respectively. However, since North Korea unilaterally cut off the communication channel in April last year, the communication route has been blocked. For this reason, the flood relief offer made the previous day was issued in the form of a press release rather than a separate traditional message.

Deputy spokesperson Kim said, "We will not make assumptions about the situation," and added, "We hope that (North Korea) will promptly respond to our offer."

Meanwhile, it has been reported that heavy rains concentrated near the Amnok River recently caused severe flooding in North Korea. According to North Korean media, about 4,100 households were flooded in the areas of Sinuiju City and Uiju County in North Pyongan Province downstream of the Amnok River. Farmland totaling 3,000 jeongbo, as well as public buildings, facilities, roads, and railways, have also been submerged one after another. Although the scale of casualties is expected to be significant, the North has not separately disclosed the extent of the damage.

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