By Lee Min-hyung

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul discussed the issue of providing food aid to North Korea with civic groups here, Tuesday, as part of a first step in reviewing the project.

Seventeen people from three organizations, including the Korea Conference of Religions for Peace, participated in the discussion.

The three groups are favorable toward the government providing humanitarian aid to the North. In a joint statement, they said South Korea should never ignore the devastating food shortage there despite ongoing military and political tension between the two Koreas.

"As of now, the unification ministry is focusing on receiving opinions. We will decide on the project's timing, method and scale afterwards," a ministry official said.

Even though an exact timeline has yet to be fixed, observers note that the South will be able to provide food aid before the World Food Programme's (WFP) deadline of September.

"The request from the WFP is to finish providing food aid sometime between May and September," the official said.

Minister Kim will continue holding talks with other civic groups before coming up with details of the aid provision. He also plans to have luncheon today with ministry advisers handling the issue of humanitarian cooperation.

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