Anchor: The South Korean government says it has provided North Korea with a batch of vaccines for more than one million children. The move comes as the government has softened its position on aid to the North following the new Unification Minister taking office in September.
KBS World Radio's Kim Soyon reports.

Report: The Unification Ministry said Tuesday that it has delivered Hepatitis B vaccines worth more than one billion won to North Korea. The ministry said the vaccines were delivered in two batches on November seventh and the 14th through the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare and the German welfare association Caritas, which also operates in South Korea.

It is Seoul’s first provision of hepatitis vaccines to Pyongyang since North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November last year. The ministry clarified that the vaccines were provided on purely humanitarian grounds within the framework of the current ban on inter-Korean trade and exchanges. South Korea delivered vaccine aid in September and November last year even after it imposed the sanction measures on the North in May of last year following the sinking of South Korean naval warship Cheonan in March. But the South Korean government suspended providing vaccines following the Yeonpyeong shelling.

Since taking office in September, Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik has allowed visits to the North by religious group representatives as well as the resumption of inter-Korean social and cultural exchanges. Ruling Grand National Party Chairman Hong Joon-pyo was also approved to visit North Korea’s Gaeseong Industrial Complex. Earlier this month, the Unification Ministry approved the WHO to use six-point-nine million dollars of funds Seoul had provided to the agency for aid to North Korea. This also marked the first time since the Yeonpyeong shelling for South Korean government funding to be used in aiding the North.

The North remains silent on this series of measures taken by the South, but many observers believe that the lack of any statement by the North itself is a sign of welcome. However, it still remains to be seen if the South would be able to continue softening its stance on the North as the thorny issue of resuming South Korean tours to the North’s Mount Geumgang resort still needs to be addressed.

Kim Soyon, KBS World Radio News.