The Unification Ministry has approved the shipment of humanitarian aid to North Korea for the first time since it announced punitive measures against North Korea for sinking the “Cheonan” naval ship.

Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-ju told reporters Wednesday that it approved two civic groups’ plan to provide milk to infants and children in North Korea’s North Hamgyeong Province and in Pyongyang.

The groups plan to send the 400 million won worth of milk to the impoverished North sometime at the end of this month.

The ministry added that it also approved the entry into the South of some 34 shipments of shoes and clothes that were manufactured in the North with materials sent from the South prior to Seoul’s announcement of measures against Pyongyang for sinking the Cheonan.