2006 Aid to North So Far: 141B Won

During the first half of this year, the government provided North Korea with a humanitarian aid of over 141.3 billion won, an amount which was reported to be the largest based on annual support amount since 1995.

According to Ministry of Unification (MU) on July 16, the subsidy for the North as of June 30 amounted to over 141.35 billion won (141.36 million dollars) for the time being, based on the amount the MU approved taken out.

This amount is larger than last year’s aid of 123.9 billion won and the largest since 1995 when 150 thousand tons (worth 185 billion won) of rice was given for free.

Accordingly, the total amount of government’s aid for the North from 1995, when the government first provided assistance to the North, to the first half of this year is 1.0556 trillion won, exceeding 1.0 trillion won for the first time.

The aid amounts by years are 2.4 billion won in 1996, 15.4 billion won in 1998, 94.4 billion won in 2000, 91.3 billion won in 2001, 107.5 billion won in 2002, 104.1 billion won in 2003, and 132.3 billion won in 2004.

A MU official said, “The increase in subsidy amount resulted from the assistance of 350 thousand tons of fertilizer, which makes up the majority of the government’s aid to the North, during the first half of this year, and infant assistance newly added through the World Health Organization (WHO).”

The government suspended the 100 thousand-ton fertilizer assistance package, which the North requested in April at the 18th inter-Korean ministerial talks held in Pyongyang after the North launched the missile. If the fertilizer assistance was provided, the subsidy amount this year would top 180 billion won.

Meanwhile, private sectors, including the Korean National Red Cross, provided an aid worth of 44.56 billion won to the North during the first half. The total subsidy provided both by the government and by private sectors amounts to 185.9 billion won.

weappon@donga.com