[ First Ferry Arrives on the Island After North Korea’s Attack ]
Following North Korea’s shelling of a South Korean island on Tuesday, both sides announced bilateral bans on Wednesday in a tit-for-tat round of retaliatory actions.
The unprovoked attack on Yeonpyeong Island left at least two South Korean civilians and two soldiers dead and injured several dozen others. Houses were also set ablaze. The incident marks the most violence between the two countries since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
In response to the attack, South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung announced that food aid to the North would be suspended, and the travel ban to the North Korean border town of Kaesong would continue, reported Yonhap news agency.
While the current food aid program is small compared to previous administrations’, Seoul recently sent 5,000 tons of rice and 3 million cups of instant noodles to the impoverished North. Both previous governments sent almost half a million tons of rice and 300,000 tons of chemical fertilizer to the North on an annual basis from 2000 to 2007, according to an earlier Epoch Times report.
