PAJU, South Korea (Reuters) – A convoy of South Korean trucks carrying the first rice aid to North Korea in three years crossed the peninsula’s heavily armed border today in the latest of a series of conciliatory moves between the rivals.
At the same time, officials from both countries met in the North Korean border town of Kaesung to discuss the resumption of reunions of families split by the Korean War which were halted after the sinking of a South Korean warship earlier this year.
Relations between the two Koreas have soured since conservative President Lee Myun-bak’s election in 2008, and then sank to their lowest point in decades at the start of the year with the sinking of a South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors.
Former US President Jimmy Carter, who visited Pyongyang last month, said the North was now sending a clear and strong signal to Washington and Seoul that it wanted to restart aid-for-disarmament talks.
Seoul, with Washington’s backing, accused Pyongyang of torpedoing its warship in March, and responded with toughened sanctions against its already weak economy and by staging a series of intimidating joint military drills off the peninsula.
Pyongyang denies it sank the South’s vessel but there have been signs of a thaw since North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s surprise trip to ally China late last month.
Analysts say Kim went to China in search of economic aid for his cash-strapped economy — still reeling from botched currency reform late last year that triggered inflation and wiped out ordinary people’s savings — and to win political support for his son Kim Jong-un’s succession.
Compounding the North’s woes, severe flooding over the past two months has hit food production that even in a good year falls a million tonnes short of the amount needed to feed its 23 million people. Seoul this week announced its first substantial aid package to its destitute neighbour in more than two years after flooding killed dozens, destroyed thousands of homes and devastated farmland.
Today, nine trucks carrying rice crossed the border at Paju, the second shipment inside a day after a fleet of trucks loaded with flour headed into North Korea.
Some diplomats and an aid group have said flooding was to blame for the apparent postponement this week of a Workers’ Party conference in Pyongyang, which was meant to bring together the North’s political elite for the first time in 30 years.
