SEOUL, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- South Korea's first shipment of food to North Korea since 2008 might be a new chapter in inter-Korean relations, an expert on the region said.
Firefighters carrying 5,000 tons of rice and a freighter carrying 3 million cups of instant noodles left for North Korea Monday, The New York Times reported.
"They keep knocking on the door of the United States and South Korea, and these shipments today have to be seen in the context of the North's continuing efforts to make a breakthrough. It could be the starting point to a new chapter of inter-Korean relations, said Choi Jin-wook, a North Korea expert at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
The shipments were bound for Dandong, China, where the food was to be unloaded later this week, and then trucked into North Korea.
Just as important as South Korea's aid shipment is the fact that North Korea has agreed to accept it, the report said.
Tensions between the two Koreas have been high since the sinking of a South Korean warship earlier this year, killing 46 sailors. South Korea claims the North sank it with a torpedo, but North Korean officials deny the claim.
Experts on the region said desperate economic conditions in the North have prompted it to begin a series of diplomatic overtures toward the South, the Times said.
"North Korea needs to express their regrets about the sailors," Choi said. "It's hard to say what exact wording would be acceptable as an apology. But I think they're working on it right now."
Aid workers and some analysts expressed concern the food shipments would be diverted to the military, loyal party members and political elites, rather than given to the neediest residents in the North.
"I'm not unhappy about food going up, but I fear that this kind of government-to-government distribution to Pyongyang will be carried out along loyalty lines," said Tim Peters, founder of the civic group Helping Hands Korea.
