South Korea finalized a plan on Thursday to send $8 million worth of humanitarian aid to North Korea through international agencies, but the exact timing of when the aid will be sent, as well as its size, will be subject to overall inter-Korean relations, the South’s Unification Ministry said in a statement.

The aid decision approved by the Moon Jae-in administration for the first time was made after a meeting of government officials chaired by Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon.

The aid program consists of $4.5 million worth of nutritional products for children and pregnant women to be sent through the World Food Program and $3.5 million worth of vaccines and essential medicines through UNICEF.

The ministry said the humanitarian aid decision is consistent with the government’s basic position that it should be considered separately from political issues.

South Korea halted its humanitarian aid to North Korea after North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January last year. The last time the South had sent aid to its neighboring country was in December 2015 through the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

By Ahn Byung-joon

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