Seoul's first batch of relief goods for victims of last week's train explosion in North Korea will head for the communist state on Wednesday.

A South Korean freighter carrying relief supplies worth 400,000 U.S. dollars and medical supplies worth another 400,000 dollars will depart from the western port city of Incheon at noon Wednesday. The ship is scheduled to arrive in Nampo port on North Korea's west coast on Thursday.

A government official said the shipment includes 3,000 sets of emergency relief goods, bottled drinking water and blankets.

Seoul has promised to provide Pyongyang with one million dollars worth of relief goods on humanitarian grounds.

The shipment comes after the North rejected a South Korean offer to make an overland delivery of relief items across the heavily fortified border between the Koreas.