Seoul's provision of 400,000 tons of rice to North Korea is set to be completed next week.

The Unification Ministry said Monday that some 387,000 tons of the total 400,000 had been shipped to the impoverished state as of last Friday, adding that the remaining batch of 3,000 tons of rice had departed for the North's Nampo port on Sunday.

In line with agreements reached at the 9th meeting of the inter-Korean economic cooperation committee last June, the ministry plans to dispatch a delegation next month to monitor the fair distribution of the rice aid in the poverty-stricken North.