As a part of its promised loan of 400,000 MT of rice aid to North Korea, South Korea is likely to send 50,000 MT overland over the next five weeks starting as early as Friday.

South Korea resumed shipping rice aid to North Korea in late June after more than a one-year hiatus, as the North shut down its nuclear facilities in the first step toward eventual nuclear dismantlement.

The rice aid, consisting of 250,000 MT of imported rice and 150,000 MT of domestic rice is to be delivered over the next five months.