December 18, 2009
SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea Friday sent medication for swine flu to North Korea, the first government-level assistance to its impoverished communist neighbour for nearly two years.
The shipment of Tamiflu and Relenza, worth 15 million dollars and enough to treat 500,000 people, was taken over the border to the North's town of Kaesong in refrigerated trucks, the unification ministry said.
North Korea this month reported nine cases of the (A)H1N1 virus. But Seoul officials and private groups suspect there are more and that the disease is spreading amid poor health conditions.
"Judging from various bits of intelligence, the new flu appears to be spreading in North Korea," a unification ministry official said.
The delivery also reflects Seoul's intention to take preemptive measures for the winter, during which the spread of the virus may speed up, officials said.
"North Korea's antiquated health system and a population already suffering from decades of malnutrition could easily make the flu a potent killer among the average population in the North," wrote Scott Snyder in an article on the Council on Foreign Relations website.
Hand sanitiser worth about one billion won (846,740 dollars) will also be delivered, probably next month.
Friday's shipment was the first from the South Korean government since a conservative administration took office in Seoul in February 2008.
President Lee Myung-Bak linked major aid to progress in nuclear disarmament, a stance which enraged the North.
It refused an offer of 50,000 tons of corn last year and has yet to respond to Seoul's latest offer of 10,000 tons of corn.
After more than a year of tensions, the North in recent months has been trying to improve relations with South Korea and the
United States. US envoy Stephen Bosworth visited Pyongyang last week for talks aimed at bringing it back to nuclear disarmament negotiations.
