By Alex Jensen
SEOUL (AA) – South Korea is reluctant to support North Korea through its worst recorded bout of flooding on the grounds that Pyongyang has made nuclear advancement a priority over helping its own people, according to Seoul’s unification ministry Monday.
Over 500 North Koreans were killed or left missing after being caught up in rains brought by Typhoon Lionrock from late last month, with many more thousands losing their homes based on Pyongyang’s official account cited by the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The North previously described the flood as the country’s worst disaster since the division of the Koreas following World War II.
But Pyongyang is also facing bolstered sanctions as the UN Security Council is set to draw up a resolution in response to the reclusive state’s latest banned nuclear test earlier this month — its second of the year and fifth in total over the last decade.
While Seoul has provided aid to its neighbor in the past, the South is taking a tough stance over North Korea’s repeated provocations.
“Even if North Korea appeals for help, we don’t think the possibility is high for assistance to be given under the current situation,” ministry spokesperson Jeong Joon-hee told local reporters. “North Korea carried out the nuclear test even as it suffered from flood damage.”
While Jeong did admit the government is “reviewing” whether to allow a South Korean civic group to reach out to the North, Seoul’s position appears to be very much in line with the global community.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Monday that a government source claimed North Korea had asked for relief from nine Asian nations but Pyongyang’s nuclear defiance had pushed sentiment “against assistance”.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se met his American and Japanese counterparts in New York over the weekend, when they released a statement calling for stronger international pressure against the North and described Pyongyang’s behavior as “further deepening its isolation and undermining the needs of its people”.
