First S Korean relief ship leaves for N Korea
AFP, Seoul
A South Korean ship loaded with aid for victims of last week's train disaster in North Korea set sail yesterday as Seoul agreed to a costly request from the Stalinist state for much more. South Korea originally offered one million dollars in aid but has now assented to a 27 million-dollar shopping list fired back by Pyongyang, including bulldozers, school equipment and color televisions. North Korea also set tight restrictions on how the donations could be delivered and refused permission for South Koreans to travel to the site, signalling that a thaw with the outside world was still some way off. South Korea's first shipment of aid Wednesday left a port west of Seoul under a banner saying: "Emergency shipment of relief goods for the Ryongchon disaster." The 1,534-tonne ship, the Han Kwang, will reach North Korea's western showcase port of Nampo Thursday through a direct sea route used for inter-Korean trade. From there the aid will be transported by road to the site of the accident that left at least 161 people dead and 1,300 injured at Ryongchon near the Chinese border. South Koreans, however, were not allowed to travel to the disaster zone. "If they would let me in, I would try to visit the site," said Lee Jong-Kun, a South Korean Red Cross official, after watching relief aid being loaded on to the ship. The goods included instant noodles, mineral water, blankets, towels and clothes. North Korea has expressed gratitude for the relief shipment but said it needed more costly items to cope. It estimated the damage Tuesday at around 356 million US dollars. The goods it asked for included 500,000 tonnes of cement, 10 bulldozers, 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil, 1,000 tonnes of iron bars, 50 television sets and 10,000 tonnes of food as well as school blackboards and desks. Unification Minister Jeong Se-Hyun said after talks with ruling party leaders that South Korea would accept the North's request, worth up to 27 million dollars. "We hope this kind of humanitarian aid will help the two Koreas build mutual confidence," Jeong said. Chung Sye-kyun, chief policymaker of the ruling Uri Party, said: "It is desirable for the two Koreas to cooperate closely to cope with the sudden disaster." But South Koreans were stunned on Monday when North Korea barred Seoul from using a quicker overland route across the tense border.
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