Korea times
Lee Jin-woo
3/6/2007
The Ministry of Unification said Tuesday it has provided some 400 million won ($400,000) to help North Korea stem the spread of scarlet fever, an infectious disease, a ministry official said.
Yang Chang-seok, spokesman for the ministry, said the money has been provided to an association of some 51 local private relief organizations.
As the money was financed by the inter-Korean cooperation fund under a matching fund system, the association promised to provide some 200 million won for the aid program.
Yang said the decision was made at a government meeting on Feb. 12.
The spokesman, however, said the decision was not in opposition to Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung’s earlier remarks not to provide any government-level assistance over the infectious disease in the impoverished North.
During a press briefing in January, the minister stated that the government would not provide medical aid to the North as scarlet fever is not a fatal infectious disease.
“Given the nature of the disease, we believe that North Korea itself will be able to solve the problem,” Lee told reporters on Jan. 11.
The spokesman said Minister Lee was referring to government-level aid through the Korean National Red Cross (KNRC), not financial assistance from private relief organizations.
South Korean humanitarian aid groups have shipped various types of medicine including penicillin and other antibiotics to Pyongyang since last December. Scarlet fever broke out in northern Ryanggang province last October.
Scarlet fever is intrinsically not a serious communicable disease, but if not treated properly it can become serious like cholera or typhoid. The impoverished North lacks medicine.
South Korea suspended its government-level humanitarian aid to North Korea after the North’s missile tests last July. A possible resumption of the aid was blocked due to the North’s nuclear bomb test in October.
During ministerial talks in Pyongyang last week, the two Koreas agreed to hold a series of meetings to restart the aid project.
