Seoul urges NKorea to account for humanitarian aid
SEOUL (AFP) — South Korea said Monday it has urged North Korea to account for building materials and cash worth almost four million dollars which it had provided for a humanitarian project in the communist state.
The South last year provided 400,000 dollars in cash and materials worth 3.4 million dollars to help its neighbour build a video conferencing centre for reunions of separated families.
Seoul's unification ministry, which handles relations with the North, said it had repeatedly demanded "full transparency" in how the aid was used.
"The North has not clearly informed us yet of progress in building the centre," it said in a rare statement on such a topic.
"The government will continue to demand that the North comply with the agreement," it said, adding that this was part of the deal.
Liberal governments have been accused in the past of failing fully to keep track of massive aid to their impoverished neighbour.
The incoming conservative administration has pledged to significantly heighten transparency in the spending of an Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund.
The South Korean government has so far spent 5.18 trillion won (5.45 billion dollars) from the fund -- 93 percent of this under the presidency of outgoing president Roh Moo-Hyun and his predecessor Kim Dae-Jung.
The Roh administration has decided to increase this year's budget for the fund by 50 percent to 700 billion won, prompting conservative civic activists to question where the money goes.
Unification ministry officials, however, said Seoul had made similar demands for transparency whenever it provided Pyongyang with rice or other humanitarian assistance.
"We always demand transparency from the North, but its response is not always satisfactory," a ministry official handling family reunions told AFP.
The 3.4 million dollars was to help build a centre in Pyongyang where North Koreans can contact long-lost South Korean relatives via live video links through the Internet.
The video reunions were introduced in August 2005 especially for those who are too old to travel across the border.
Since the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, 16,212 Koreans have been allowed face-to-face meetings. Some 3,245 others have been reunited via live video link.
The Koreas have remained technically at war since their 1950-1953 conflict. There are no cross-border mail or telephone services for ordinary people.
