Yonhap:
10/11/2006
South Korean civic groups on Wednesday sent humanitarian aid shipments to North Korea despite the heightened tension over North Korea’s declared nuclear test, officials said.
A 2,864-ton ship plying the Incheon-Nampo route departed for a North Korean port with shipments of 14 containers for humanitarian aid and another 45 containers for construction and raw materials to be used at the Kaesong industrial complex just north of the inter-Korean border.
The aid shipments include 2,000 bicycles, two ambulances, blankets and boilers, they said.
Following North Korea’s announcement of its first-ever nuclear test on Monday, the South Korean government suspended a shipment of 7,500 tons of cement to the communist country.
“We hope that the provision of bicycles on humanitarian grounds will contribute to maintaining civilian inter-Korean exchanges and offering a clue to the resolution of the stained inter-Korean relationship,” a local YMCA official said.
