South Korea says no response from North on flood relief offer

Jeddah - Yasmine El Tohamy - Seoul: South Korea said Friday it had received no response after trying to contact the North to offer humanitarian aid following reports of deaths and heavy damage caused by recent flooding.
Seoul’s unification ministry said in a statement Thursday that it was willing to “urgently provide” humanitarian assistance to “North Korean disaster victims” impacted by the downpours.
The ministry attempted to contact the North to make an offer of aid via the Koreas’ liaison office communication channel, but Pyongyang has not responded, Seoul said Friday.
“We will not make assumptions about the situation and look forward to a prompt response (from the North) to our proposal,” Kim In-ae, the deputy spokesperson for the ministry, told reporters.
North Korea said earlier this week that a “record downpour” hit its northern border areas near China, resulting in “a grave crisis in which more than 5,000 inhabitants were isolated in the zone vulnerable to flooding.”
On Wednesday, Pyongyang said many “public buildings, facilities, roads and railways, including more than 4,100 dwelling houses and nearly 3,000 hectares of farmlands” were flooded in its northern regions of Sinuiju and Uiju.
That same day, North Korean state media said leader Kim Jong Un “proposed to strictly punish” officials who neglected their disaster prevention duties, which had caused unspecified deaths or injuries “that can not be allowed.”
A report by South Korea’s TV Chosun said hundreds of people could have been killed.
Kim has been shown in multiple videos this week traversing flood waters in a rubber boat, overseeing rescue operations involving military helicopters.
Natural disasters tend to have a greater impact on the isolated and impoverished North due to its weak infrastructure, while deforestation has left it vulnerable to flooding.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North bolstering military ties with Russia while sending thousands of trash-carrying balloons to the South.
In response, Seoul’s military blasts K-pop and anti-regime messages from border loudspeakers and recently resumed live-fire drills on border islands and near the demilitarised zone that divides the Korean peninsula.
Despite the heightened tensions on the peninsula, South Korea’s unification ministry on Thursday expressed “deep sympathy” for the flood victims in the North.
Seoul’s foreign ministry also issued a separate statement Friday, extending its “deep condolences” to the North Koreans who have been “affected by the recent heavy rainfall.”
South Korea has “consistently maintained the position that it will continue humanitarian assistance to North Korea,” regardless of the “political and military situation,” the foreign ministry added.
Pyongyang unilaterally cut off all official military and political communication links with Seoul in 2020 and blew up a disused inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border.
The inter-Korean liaison office channel was restored in 2021, but the North has not been responding to the hotline calls since April 2023.
Despite the North’s lack of response, Seoul has been attempting to communicate with the North through the channel twice daily, every day, according to the unification ministry.