South Korean nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have sent about four-thousand tons of food aid to North Korea over the course of the first seven months of the year.

Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun told a news briefing Wednesday that South Korean civilian groups have continued their steady stream of aid to the North despite a recent chill in inter-Korean relations.

The spokesman said South Korean NGOs sent 32-billion won worth of aid to North Korea during the January-to-July period.

Kim added that the figures exclude government subsidies.

Meanwhile, the number of South Koreans who visited North Korea for aid programs fell from 45-hundred to about 26-hundred in the cited period.