Anchor : The government has approved the resumption of South Korean aid provision to North Korea through the World Health Organization. Providing aid to the North through the U.N. agency is an indirect method, but it's worthwhile to note that mainly South Korean civic groups have led humanitarian aid to North Korea in recent months, and the Seoul government is now again involved in the process. KBS World Radio's Kim Soyon reports.

Report : A South Korean government official said Tuesday that the government has approved the use of six-point-nine million dollars out of the total 13 million South Korea gave to the World Health Organization in 2009 for providing humanitarian aid to the North Korea.

This is the first follow-up step taken by the government since Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik said Seoul will actively consider resuming government-level aid to North Korea via a U.N. agency, a remark he made during talks with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Saturday.

The WHO began a five-year project in 2006 to provide medicine and medical equipment to North Korea and improve its medical facilities in the North. The 13-million dollars South Korea funded to the WHO was to aid the project for its fourth year of operation.

But the Seoul government withheld the use of the money as inter-Korean relations soured, and the WHO cannot execute aid budgets if the donor nation does not approve it.

South Korea has now sent a letter to the WHO approving the use of the funds for aid. The organization has reportedly requested Seoul’s approval for use of the funds in early August and had also submitted a monitoring plan for the fund to be executed by late October.

The Seoul government also plans to begin full-scale discussions with other U.N. agencies on humanitarian aid provision to North Korea. Plans include additional aid through the WHO and resuming aid through the U.N. Children's Fund, or UNICEF, or the International Vaccine Institute. South Korea has supported these agencies for North Korea aid up until 2009 but suspended funding last year due to strained inter-Korean ties.

Kim Soyon, KBS World Radio News.