South Korea OKs Eugene Bell Foundation's plan to send TB medication to North Korea
South Korea's Unification Ministry has approved an application by the Eugene Bell Foundation Korea to send medication for tuberculosis to North Korea, a government official said Wednesday (January 18).
The government on Tuesday gave the green light to the
foundation's request to deliver medical aid to North Korea, but
it rejected the agency's move to send materials needed to build
hospital wards in the new year, according to a ministry
official.
The ministry previously said that it was
considering the group's plan to send TB medication, given the
need to treat TB patients. But Seoul said it does not feel it is
proper to approve the delivery of construction materials due to
the grave security situation on the divided peninsula sparked by
North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations.
It marked the government's first approval of humanitarian aid to
North Korea in 2017 at a time when Seoul has effectively
suspended civilian inter-Korean exchanges and South Koreans'
visits to North Korea since Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test in
January 2016.
"The government has the basic
stance that it will continue (to allow civic groups) to offer
humanitarian assistance to socially vulnerable people in North
Korea such as infants and pregnant women," Jeong Joon-hee,
ministry spokesman, said at a press briefing. "But the size or
timing for the aid will be decided after taking into account
various factors."
Stephen Linton, chairman of Eugene
Bell Foundation Korea, claimed in December that the government
gave an unfavorable response to its request to send TB
medication and other materials.
The foundation has
long provided medical humanitarian assistance to North Korea,
especially for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
In
August last year, the group said that a delay in the ministry's
approval of its medical shipment and Pyongyang's issuance of
visas postponed the delivery of its regular spring shipment by
about a month.
Since Pyongyang's nuclear test early
last year, only Eugene Bell Foundation has received the approval
from Seoul to provide assistance to North Korea. It sent a
shipment in the middle of 2016 to help North Koreans.
Source:
The Korea Herald
