South Korea approves humanitarian group's travel to North

Nov. 27 (UPI) -- The South Korean government has given permission to a local humanitarian group to travel to North Korea amid concerns sanctions are interfering with aid to ordinary North Koreans.

The Korean Sharing Movement will travel to North Korea on Wednesday, and 14 of its staff members will be staying in the country for four days, Yonhap reported Tuesday.

Plans include inter-Korea discussions on future cooperation, according to the report.

Korean Sharing Movement has been active since 1996. This week will be the first time in six years the group is permitted to travel to North Korea.

The organization is not alone. Last week, the South Korean group Medical Aid For Children visited North Korea's children's hospitals in Pyongyang and a pharmaceutical plant, according to Yonhap.

The group, established in 1997, supported various North Korea projects, including the Mangyongdae Children's General Hospital, but suspended contact with the North after 2013, as inter-Korea relations deteriorated under former President Park Geun-hye.

KBS reported a larger group, the Korean NGO Council for Cooperation with North Korea, a coalition of more than 50 organizations, was in Pyongyang last week.

The group visited children's food plants and discussed cooperation with their North Korean counterparts, according to reports.

In October, U.S. nonprofit Eugene Bell Foundation was permitted to travel to North Korea by the State Department.

The team has previously distributed medicine and educated North Korean tuberculosis patients to prevent the spread of the disease.