S. Korea resumes medical aid to N. Korea

South Korea will resume medical aid to North Korea through the UN health body, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday, citing an official.South Korea "made the decision by taking into account its stance of maintaining its humanitarian aid for infants, children and other vulnerable people in the North, and the World Health Organization's (WHO's) request," the official was quoted as saying.The aid will be used to give basic medical supplies and medical facilities to North Korean hospitals, which outside experts have said are often ill-equipped to treat patients due to a lack of medicines and supplies, according to the report.The move comes days after South Korea's Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik discussed how to help North Korea with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York, USA.It also comes after South Korea said it will be flexible in policies toward the North to try to improve their strained relations over the North's two deadly attacks on the South last year.In 2009, South Korea donated USD 13.12 million to the WHO for humanitarian aid to the North. Still, South Korea later withheld the execution of USD 6.94 million following the sinking of its warship in March 2010 that was blamed on the North.The UN health body cannot use donated funds if a donor country withholds its execution.South Korea sent a letter to the UN body earlier in the day to authorize the use of the remaining USD 6.94 million for aid to the North, the unification ministry official said.