South Korea has decided to send some 40-thousand tons of food aid to North Korea via the World Food Program.

Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told a regular news briefing Thursday that the government made the decision after the United Nations relief agency asked Seoul the previous day to provide aid to ease the North's serious food shortage.

Lee added that the government also decided to send ten-thousand-500 tons of rice in emergency aid, as part of a pledge made last year to help the North recover from flood damage. The shipment had been suspended since the North’s nuclear test last October.

The minister said that the latest food aid had nothing to do with Seoul’s delayed provision of 400-thousand tons of rice to the North provided for in the nuclear dismantlement agreement reached in February, describing the current installment as "humanitarian assistance."