S Korea To Give North Rice Even If Nuclear Deadline Missed

Apr 05,2007 00:00 by dailynews

South Korea will offer North Korea rice aid even though Pyongyang may miss a deadline for shutting down its atomic reactor under an international disarmament agreement. Top Asian officials voiced concerns earlier this week that the North was unlikely to meet the April 14 deadline because of glitches in the transfer of North Korean money in a Macau bank that had been frozen because of U.S. allegations of money laundering.

The South "will give rice to the North as scheduled" after economic talks between the two countries set for April 18-21 in Pyongyang, Vice Unification Minister Shin Eon-sang told reporters.

The North had requested 400,000 MT of rice from Seoul during high-level talks last month.