South Korea Offers Aid to North Korea Amid Rising Tensions and Disasters

South Korea has proposed sending aid supplies to North Korea to assist in recovery from severe rains and floods. The Unification Ministry is willing to provide quick support for the humanitarian crisis, but it is uncertain if North Korea will accept due to heightened tensions over nuclear ambitions and military exercises.

South Korea on Thursday extended an offer to send aid supplies to North Korea, aiming to help the country recover from heavy rains and devastating floods that have submerged thousands of homes and vast areas of farmland.

However, it remains uncertain whether North Korea will accept South Korea's proposal. Animosity between the two war-divided rivals is at its peak in years due to the North's expanding nuclear ambitions and the South's intensification of combined military drills with the United States and Japan to counter Northern threats.

South Korea's Unification Ministry, which manages inter-Korean relations, expressed its readiness to quickly provide supplies to alleviate the "humanitarian difficulties" facing North Korean residents following the storms. The ministry has urged North Korea's Red Cross to respond swiftly to discussions about the types and amounts of aid, and the methods of delivery.

North Korea has yet to respond to the South's offer.

North Korean state media reported Wednesday that heavy rains recently resulted in flooding of 4,100 houses, 7,410 acres of agricultural land, and numerous public buildings, structures, roads, and railways in the northwestern city of Sinuiju and the adjacent town of Uiju. So far, no casualty details have been reported.

During an emergency Politburo meeting on Wednesday in Sinuiju, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called on authorities to "strictly punish" those who failed in their disaster prevention duties, which he said led to "even the casualty that cannot be allowed," according to the Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea halted nearly all cooperation and diplomacy with the South after major nuclear negotiations with the United States broke down in 2019 over disagreements concerning the removal of U.S.-led sanctions and halting of North Korea's nuclear and missile program.

The North also refused South Korea's assistance during its COVID-19 outbreak in 2022.

Since 2022, tensions have exacerbated as Kim Jong Un has leveraged Russia's conflict in Ukraine to further expand his nuclear arsenal and issue aggressive threats towards the U.S. and South Korea.

(With inputs from agencies.)