Gov¡¯t studies boosting aid to N. Korea

The government has embarked on a business of working follow-up measures on the seven-point agreement reached in the second South-North Korean ministerial talks held in Pyongyang last week. In a meeting of the National Security Council on Saturday, the government praised the fact that North Korea has revealed its difficult food situation for the first time through an official meeting and asked for the South`s food aid in a frank attitude.

The council members decided to study the concrete scale of the projected food aid and the timing, government sources said. They also shared the view that the government is required to make efforts to launch the future inter-Korean relationship in a pragmatic way, thus arousing wider positive public response in that the people`s support is essential in the course of deciding on offering food loans to the North, the sources said.

In the meeting, the council members also decided to promote a program for the exchange of letters between the separated families whose families on the other side are confirmed to be surviving among the total 76,000 people who applied for family reunion. The program will be pushed simultaneously together with the establishment of a meeting place for the family reunion, the sources added. Unification Minister Park Jae-Kyu, chief delegate of the South to the ministerial-level talks, briefed the members on the result of his meeting with North Korean National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-Il and the contents of the joint statement.

Park said that he would place top priority on translating into action the agreements of the ministerial-level meeting, the sources said.

Boo Hyung-Kwon bookum90@donga.com