South Korea may offer aid to flood-hit North-Yonhap

SEOUL, Aug 3 (Reuters) South Korea may offer medicines and essential goods to flood-hit North Korea if civilian organisations in the South formally make a request, a news agency reported today, as the North continued to refuse aid.

South Korea, a major supplier of aid to North Korea, suspended shipments after Pyongyang defied international warnings and test-fired seven missiles on July 5.

''The government will consider if and how to help (the North) while considering the situations, as political parties and private organisations request for help,'' Yonhap quoted an unnamed South Korean official as saying.

The report comes a day after Seoul's Red Cross and the World Food Programme (WFP) said Pyongyang had refused aid offers to help it deal with flooding that displaced tens of thousands and could push the impoverished country to famine.

Three major storms hit North Korea in July, leaving nearly 300 people dead or missing, international agencies have said.

The storms devastated the North's potato crop and will likely cut into rice production in the country which is already battling chronic food shortages, another WFP official said last month.

The North had earlier requested 500,000 tonnes of rice this year from the South. Seoul said it would send humanitarian aid after North Korea returned to six-country talks on ending its nuclear weapons programme.

REUTERS DKB KN1833