0.2 million tons of Fertilizers will be shipped to North Korea

The government will ship 0.2 million tons of fertilizers to North Korea beginning this month as a follow-up measure of the trip of the special advisor on diplomacy, security, and unification, Lim Dong-Won, to North Korea.

Director of humanitarian affairs bureau of the Ministry of Unification (MOU), Hong Jae-hyung, said on April 11, ”We will take internal steps such as holding soon the North-South Exchange Cooperation Promotion Council to begin the fertilizer shipping from late April.”

He also said, ”We think the fertilizer support projects to North Korea, which have been continuously implemented on basis of humanitarian reasons for the past three years, improved the harvest status and food situations there,” and added, ”We will proceed the fertilizer support under the spirit of the national agreement in a way to help the improvement of North-South relationships.”

Minister of MOU, Jeong Se-Hyun, previously said in a questions and answer session in National Assembly on April 10, ”Our government has a plan to support North Korea with fertilizers with appropriate timing for fertilization season in the similar levels to that of last year, which was 0.2 million tons of fertilizers.”

The government is also planning to discuss the issues of supporting North Korea with 0.3 million tons of rice in loan basis through the second North-South Economic Cooperation Promotion Committee, which is to be held in Seoul between May 7 and 10.

Kim spear@donga.com