The government said it still plans to send flood relief aid to North Korea despite the North’s firing of artillery shells near the inter-Korean maritime border on Wednesday.

A Unification Ministry official told reporters on Thursday that this planned round of flood relief is purely humanitarian support in the name of South Korea’s Red Cross.

The official added that civic groups’ support to the vulnerable in North Korea will continue if there are no particular changes in the situation.

The official said the North’s claim that South Korea’s military mistook detonations from construction work for artillery fire does not merit any mention. He said the South’s military has responded sternly and appropriately.