South Korea will send one hundred thousand tons of rice to North Korea via an overland route for the first time ever.

The shipment is part of 400 thousand tons of rice South Korea pledged to provide to the North earlier this year.

The Unification Ministry says the first batch of one hundred thousand tons will be delivered through cross-border roads, one in the western sector of the military demarcation line and the other near the east coast.

The ministry had originally notified the North that it would send 20 thousand tons of rice via an overland route, but Pyongyang had asked the South to deliver 100 thousand tons of its rice aid via the cross-border roads.

The government plans to import the remaining rice aid of 300 thousand tons from overseas and deliver it to the North via a maritime route.