A private aid agency in South Korea said Friday that it has delivered medicine and related supplies to treat tuberculosis to North Korea.

The Eugene Bell Foundation also said that its officials plan to visit the North from April 19th to May tenth to examine the conditions of tuberculosis patients undergoing treatment in the reclusive regime. 

The foundation had urged the South Korean government to approve its aid delivery, saying that medication for some 15-hundred multidrug-resistant tuberculosis(MDR-TB) patients in North Korea could not be delivered due to sanctions. 

The agency said patients of highly resistant strains of tuberculosis must take medicine consistently for 18 months, and failing to receive timely treatment will aggravate their conditions to a point of becoming untreatable.

It said that its treatment centers in the North only have enough medication to last through April, which prompted the foundation to request government approval last month for the delivery of three containers carrying medicine.